CELEBRATED CRIMES 




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Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusslan Court 




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(Eelebrateb Crimes of the 
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HIexanbre Bumas 



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ITHE LIBRARY OF;' 
CONGRESS. 

Two CoBtes -sGc-ved 

SEP 25 1905 ; 
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Copyright, igos 
By L. C. Page & Company 

(incorporated) 



All rights reserved 
Published September, 1905 



COLONIAL PRESS 

Electrotyped a?id Printed by C. H. Simonds &> Co. 

Boston, U.S.A. 



forewort) 



ALEXANDRE DUMAS AS A TRAVELLER 

It was the mode at one time to make portraits 
of a notable person in the Janus mode, with two 
heads, " facing both ways." Phihp of Champagne 
went farther by presenting his patron Cardinal Riche- 
lieu in three ways, two profiles and a central full face. 
But to fully portray Alexandre Dumas his likeness 
would have to be shown by the multiscope, for each 
of his many phases suffice to make an eminent one- 
feature man. 

As a dramatist, there is no stage on which his 
pieces have not been exhibited; as a novelist, his 
fiction has been carried wherever steam has entered; 
as a newspaper projector and editor, his reputation 
was so high at home that Millaud (the capitalist who 
founded the great one-cent daily, the Petit Journal) 
and Villemessant (founder of the Paris Figaro) 
offered Dumas a fortune for his Mousquetaire jour- 
nal; as a theatrical manager, Dumas carried on his 
own Theatre Historique for years while not flagging 
in his literary labours; as an architect, he devised 
the Monte Cristo mansion with that novel adjunct 
of a lake-surrounded summer-house study with one 



Iforewor^ 

window for espial of duns and bores, recommended 
to his brethren of the pen; as a poet, he rhymed 
according to French models passably; like his own 
hero, Dantes, he could sail a yacht; as a horseman, 
the Cossacks of the Don were in raptures at his keep- 
ing pace with their wild steeds; as a fencer, he was 
his own Chateau-Renaud ; as a sportsman, he has 
his fame; as a cook of the first water, he was a 
Brillat-Savarin conjoined with a Careme; as a musi- 
cian, — but we are not to " leave out the wart," — 
Dumas had no ear for music and less voice, but he 
could write books of operas, and he did so. 

But with all these traits, Dumas has not yet been 
properly appreciated as a traveller, even in his own 
land, — but, then, Parisians are poor travellers. Oh, 
it is not given to everybody to be a traveller worth 
following and listening to, when returned. Some- 
thing more is required of a tourist-author than a 
well-filled wallet and note-book of trite observation 
and hackneyed details. How many travel-books have 
been written and, alas! published, and how few hold 
a place — not in the library, for they get there ! but 
in one's memory and hand to be dwelt upon? You 
can count such on your fingers. 

Let us first see how Dumas was fitted out by 
nature to be the traveller, for you will be convinced, 
even if you read only this experience in Russia, that 
he was fated to pass through ** moving accidents by 

flood and field." 

vi 



Hlexan^re Dumas as a TTtavellet 

Alexandre's youth was spent in poverty scarcely 
genteel, his mother being the widow of a general 
officer under the Republic, whose enmity with Bona- 
parte induced that '' good hater " — revengeful Cor- 
sican ! — to suspend all pensions. The soldier's 
widow performed at the usual cost that miracle of 
bringing up the hero's son. 

In vain was a silly attempt to make a priest of him, 
for he ran away from the seminary, in three days, 
" into the woods." It was his predilection to roam 
there with the village ne'er-do-wells and the older 
poachers, learning woodcraft like a new Shakespeare. 
But mark the destiny ! he became versed in all athletic 
feats. 

These inured a body and brain to contend against 
sedentary evils engendered by his devotion to literary 
production, for he wrote twelve hours at a stretch, 
to say nothing of an addiction to table delights. 
Luckily, Dumas drank water to the exclusion of rare 
vintages, in which he might have bathed if he had 
liked. His woodcraft lessons — see him mirrored in 
" Ange Pitou " (" Queen's Necklace " series) — come 
into play throughout his globe-trotting experience. 
Singularly enough, his first reading was in an illus- 
trated '' Buffon's Natural History." Beginning with 
avid listening to the weird narrations in charcoal- 
burners' shanties (chantiers), poachers' burrows, 
gamekeepers' lodges, he soon had a fund, not of 
exploits, but of inventions, to repay the story-tellers, 



3forewor& 

and his " yarns " were reckoned, by no mean judges 
of folk-tales, to be well-spun. 

Except for the enthusiasm sustaining him in his 
drudgery days in town, Dumas reached thirty almost 
before the triumph of his play of " Queen Christine 
of Sweden " released him from the desk, and his in- 
clination toward nomad life was manifested. His 
patron, the Duke of Orleans, urges the Ministry of 
1830 to hasten the giving of the Legion of Honour 
cross to Dumas, as the latter purposes a journey in 
the North, and the decoration would lend the young 
traveller a more imposing effect. This way of look- 
ing at the insignia established by the bellicose Na- 
poleon, from a Citizen-King's point of view, is en- 
lightening. Was this an exploration of Russia already 
in the adventurer's mind? In any case, the over- 
turning of the legitimate monarchy suspended distri- 
bution of official plums to government employees — 
Dumas owed his post as civil servant to his clear, 
bold handwriting. 

It was not until 1832 that Dumas, with the itch 
for movement, — odd in a man having the conquered 
Paris stage for a footstool, — proposed to a publisher 
a book upon what was known as " the regular Swiss 
Round." M. Gosselin responded that the subject was 
written to death. Whereupon the wilful pen-driver 
bounded off into William Tell-land, and, soon, his 
" Impressions of Swiss Travelling " appeared in the 

Revue des Deux Mondes, which was the " Black- 

viii 



aiexan&re Dumas as a traveller 

wood " of French serials. This won him a reputation 
for attractive story-telling, which, after all, is the only- 
one, with all his vanity and worth, he claimed. Critics 
were amazed that " the most common occurrences and 
trivial chatter furnished interesting pages." They 
granted, too, that the dramaturgist had soared above 
the melodramatic flights of his " Tower of Nesle " 
on facing Nature, — not that " Dame " Nature of 
Paris sketchers, who think Fontainebleau Woods quite 
a Black Forest, but that Mother Nature whom the 
ancients held to be the chief terrestrial goddess. 

This first plunge into the sublime and splendrous 
caused the newcomer in nature-books to declare his 
creed and the alliance of descriptive novel — for he 
was of the school of Scott: "I am incapable of 
writing about a place never seen." This was counter 
to the stock joke, on the boulevard, that the authors 
of " Voyages Around My Study " found the money 
to see their subject-site in the sales of the work ! 

But it was in reality that Dumas flitted through 
Belgium and skirted the Rhenish banks. Talma, the 
tragedian, taking his future in advance on credit, 
baptized him, theatrically, as playwright, in the name 
of Schiller. His professional godson accordingly 
made the acquaintance of the scenes depicted in verse 
by the German poet, and his prose is not the less worth 
reading. 

The French say that the appetite grows while eat- 
ing. There was enough in Dumas' Parisian life of 



iforewor& 

lettered ease and theatrical luxury to chain him to 
lovely Lutetia, but he was much of a gipsy, — at least, 
of Creole blood — he was half West Indian, — and 
restlessness was an enjoyable trait. His artistic 
position was such that he readily again obtained that 
governmental assistance which is a Frenchman's 
pride. He was titularly librarian to the Orleans 
family, and it was logical that when its son, the Duke 
of Montpensier, made " the Spanish Marriage " which 
once troubled politicians, Dumas should be detailed 
as an invited guest at the wedding in Madrid. The 
Queen of Spain made him a knight of the Carlos HI. 
order. He went this time, the dignitary superseding 
the author, — transported on a man-of-war, bowed 
down to by captains, governors, functionaries, and, 
haughtiest of all, hotel proprietors, seeking a line in 
the inevitable travel-book, so that he seemed an am- 
bassador extraordinary with his train of artists, trans- 
lators, interpreters, and secretary. Twenty years ago, 
in Paris, every other literary veteran you met was 
a secretary of " the Great Alexandre." But bandits 
held off, fanatics refrained from hooting the odious 
Frenchman, cooks competed with choice concoctions 
for the praise of an adept, and as a true judge — 
which he was not — he was offered vintages which 
to common mortals are only known by labels. 

His book on Spain was a revelation, for he had 
succeeded with that delusive country when stylists 
and artists with the pen had fallen short; only, he 



Hlexan^re Dumas as a traveller 

Was reproached by those who had not been baked 
in the sun on the plains or frozen in the mountains 
for too strong a glare and abrupt effects. The local 
colouring was too much like a scene-painter's — they 
wanted a Meissonier and not a Decamps. Yet it was 
Dumas who was in the right, if the general opinion 
of a place depends on '' the admiration excited by 
its description." 

From this popular reception and the gratitude of 
the Cabinet for its partially volunteer envoy, it no 
longer astonished anybody that, in 1846, Premier 
Salvandy despatched this same able " semi-detached " 
representative into Algeria, the new French colony. 
Still, this time, it was not without cavil. A deputy 
in Parliament rebuked the Administration for depart- 
ing from the forms, and selecting for a stringent 
investigation a novelist and a newspaper man! He 
asserted that such an investigation would result ill. 
He was correct, from his bias, — the veritable officials 
would have '' whitewashed " the faulty, while the 
bungler actually exhibited them as by the lime-light, 
together with " the beauties of the French adminis- 
tration." The report was not offered to the public, 
— but the story of the journey did so appear, and, as 
About says, with scrupulous adherence to govern- 
ment tradition, this book " shows that he travelled 
just to tell a traveller's tale." At all events, if Dumas 
did not please the office-holders, he acted like a thor- 
oughly independent man who might stroll through 

xi 



jforewort) 

any tract and skim any seas. Dumas was the Count 
of Monte Cristo, at last, in person, with his own yacht. 
If lackeys shrank from him, it was not so with sea- 
men, eager and proud to convey the lettered Caesar 
and his fortunes. 

Africa had taken a new face in the jaded Parisian 
eyes, and the popularity of Algiers as a winter resort 
dates from Dumas's letters home. In them was an 
effect of the Sahara mirage, the variegated tints 
through the Dumas prism. 

On his laurels he might have rested, exotic leaves 
from many climes; his travel-books were mounting 
up into a series, in which " everything is to be found : 
history, geography, drama, eclogue and idyl, pol- 
itics, gastronomy, with — all but — truth ! " The last 
word is always from the envious; but even among 
them one had the candour to avow — " Dumas lies 
like truth ! " But he had been at the places whereof 
he wrote, and the official paymaster carried authen- 
ticity to the middle-class reader. As Hugo said : 
" Dumas is one of the comforters." The stay-at- 
homes revelled in this roster of adventures and perils, 
through which Gallic gaiety galloped madly, but ever 
kept a safe footing. 

Replete with applause, he was adjured to stay in 
town by publishers of books and magazines, while 
theatrical directors implored. But, like Dickens, who 
restored his taxed wits by long walks, Dumas, on a 
greater scale, would recuperate after a three-volume 

xii 



HIexanbre Dumas as a Uravellet 

novel or a five-act play by a little scamper to the 
Pole or a trot around the Austrian empire. A tour 
of the world was equivalent in him to the Highland 
scramble or seaside trip of the cockney- journalist. 

Preceding Jules Verne, Dumas had his yacht built 
to his taste, — the Emma, a goletta, a familiar rig 
on the Middle Sea. In 1859, Dumas was about to 
cruise there, when his course fell athwart that of the 
grand filibuster, Garibaldi. 

These two spirits were made to run in grooves. 
They both belonged to the Carbonari, that secret 
patriotic society which aimed to make Italy free and 
Rome the capital of a republic again. Frenchman 
as he was, Dumas never forgave their forsworn 
comrade, Louis Napoleon, who, to become emperor, 
broke the oath of that fraternity, which was why, 
under the Empire, his career was fettered. Dumas 
had met the " Lion " just as he was coming with his 
One Thousand to capture Sicily. Appointed his aid- 
de-camp, the novelist had his paternal instincts revived ; 
he went to the mainland with funds to buy weapons 
for the insurgents, and supplemented them largely 
out of his own purse, — this was not government 
funds, though it would have been excellent satire to 
have frustrated Napoleon's liberticide intentions with 
his own napoleons ! On Garibaldi arriving at Naples, 
sweeping all resistance before him, he found Dumas 
awaiting with the munitions so much wanted. In 
return — not of the cash advanced — the forthcom- 



\ 



jforewor^ 

ing dictator made his friend curator of museums. By 
this title, Dumas, with enthusiasm, set to open up the 
buried cities of Vesuvius on a large scale. Unhappily, 
the Neapolitans are nothing if not exclusive. To the 
standing cry of "Down with all foreigners!" suc- 
ceeded a novel but similarly unpleasant one : '* This 
Dumas interloper into the bay ! " The author, aston- 
ished at this new version of the Sicilian Vespers, 
pathetically remarked : "I am used to French in- 
gratitude, but this Italian sort cuts to the heart!" 
But the motto was "Italy goes it alone!" (''Italia 
far a da se!''). The disappointed revolutionist went 
aboard his vessel and put out for the Barbary States. 

So Italy lost a valuable supporter, but the reading 
world gained an entrancing volume of travel-talk. 
It was the time when Dumas the Younger was at- 
taining fame, and purblind critics tried to see analogy 
in their writings. But the Elder was clear-sighted, 
for he said : " Alexandre photographs — I paint ! " 
And it was paint used from a full palette. 

Though England much influenced Dumas, — he 
owns his obligations to Scott and the English dram- 
atists, his pieces with scenes laid in Great Britain, 
" Kean," " Catherine Howard," and the English 
episodes of the " Musketeers " restoring the Stuarts, 
— it was not till now that he visited London. It was 
the great fiasco of his life. For he had engaged 
Drury Lane Theatre for an impossible essay, — to 
play " Monte Cristo " in two evenings, a Chinese 



aiexanbre ©umas as a tTravcUet 

plan of continuous performance not to Bull's taste. 
Besides, the latter was infuriated against all the 
French by the threats of Napoleon's " colonels " to 
invade England. The play was boo'ed off " the 
hallowed stage," and the actors pelted home. But the 
good-natured man cherished no rancour, — you will 
not find in his lines anything like the persistent butt 
his contemporaries made of the Englishman. 

At home, he was upraising another Folly, — the 
mansion called, also, " Monte Cristo." This Aladdin's 
palace made many believe that, at last, he was to be 
a fixture in Paris. Not only was he architect of 
his own fortune, but of his own residence, — luckier 
than Balzac, who built solely on paper. The sensible 
feature in the magnificent mass was his study, a Gothic 
lodge. This was a pleasant star-chamber, as the ceil- 
ing was star-spangled blue, while the tone was azure; 
a deep fireplace with enormous hood was in re- 
minder of the wood fires at Villers-Cotterets, where 
he passed his boyhood rustically. The stones out- 
side were blazoned in scarlet, each with a title of 
one of his works. 

For this factitious rus in urbe — it was rather too 
convenient to Paris for the sycophants to run out 
to see Dumas ! — he changed his paternal motto, " To 
him who hath shall be given!" ('' Deus dahit, Dens 
dedit!"), to "I love those loving me!" {'' Taime 
qui mfaime! '') 

Though this stupendous erection on an author's 



fforeworb 

precarious earnings, and another house — the Historic 
Theatre — were sold, it was with astonishment that 
those who had seen this Sisyphus renew his roUing 
of the rock up-hill, after it had slipped him, heard that 
" Dumas is off again ! " It was the government which, 
all things considered, was a little fairy godmother, 
coming to his aid. He was desired to go to 
Russia, even to its perilous borderland ! What would 
the sybarite do in a region of Cossacks and Tartars, 
for the French had no kindly memories of the inva- 
ders of 1815? No novel-reading revenue officers there 
to pass the trunks bearing the talismanic letters, 
"A. D."; no authors to toast a brother; no man- 
agers to banquet the dramatist; no -professor of lan- 
guages to give his class a holiday that he might pilot 
the great Alexandre around town; no' conoscente to 
dispute for his company at his country-seat ; and what 
a pain for a gourmand to go where a candle-end 
stirred in cabbage soup is a dainty! On the other 
hand, that stanch Republican, Hugo, applauded, say- 
ing, well knowing his man : " Wherever Dumas goes, 
he will sow French ideas," — meaning about freedom, 
rights of man, etc. And the reader will remark, 
later, that Dumas did remain steadfast to his prin- 
ciples even in aristocratic Russia. Enough that the 
home government did supply the funds and Dumas 
intrepidly departed for the vapourous Ultima Thule. 
His works went before him, like the poet's flute- 
players, — for he was widely known in Russia. One 



Hlexanbre Dumas as a Uraveller 

of his early stories, '' The Master-at-Arms," has its 
scene laid in Czar-land, in fact. But to the military, 
he was son of the Republican General Dumas, who 
had fought them in the Tyrol. Besides, he was phys- 
ically a winning representative of France in this 
realm of big men, adoring physical force. In 1863, 
Dumas was upright, athletic, broad and large, robust, 
and his '' Porthos " about the legs ; he was so nicely 
proportioned that he carried off the adipose beginning 
to show of the fatty degeneration, finally his master. 
Gray showed in his curly hair, but the head was 
firmly set on a massy neck, between Herculean 
shoulders. He was a good, though heavy horseman. 
His eyes were unvaryingly bright and often tender. 
Over all the broad face, dimpled and plump, beamed 
a geniality, confidence, and guileless self-satisfaction 
quite as catching as his Homeric laugh. His latest 
secretary, Gabriel Ferry, affirms that " never was a 
human visage more free in its display of fun, hearti- 
ness, frankness, and affability." His hand was strong 
enough to draw aside Nature's majestic veil from 
the peaks of the frosty Caucasus. As stated else- 
where, Dumas's official instructions were to observe 
the effect of the emancipation of the serfs, under 
Emperor Alexander H.'s ukase, an act of immensity 
only paralleled by the Emancipation Act delivered by 
President Lincoln. 

But that apart, as you will see in the following 
pages, Dumas happily found time for varied jaunts 



ifotewot^ 

in all directions and among all levels. Though princes 
clashed to be his hosts, he did not disdain to toast 
his mutton cabob on the pine splint or bake a potato in 
cottage fire ashes. He would drink tea with the 
quality, and kvass and vodki with the mujiks. Lower 
than that, he *' sounded " the chain-bound prisoners 
for Siberia, for their life-stories, in the same thorough 
manner as he did prison and palace walls to dis- 
lodge their awful and fascinating legends. 

So fraught with compassionate and sympathetic 
spirit is Dumas, finding such pure delight in novelties 
and by inquisitiveness above paltry prying, — straying 
into byways and untrodden wilds to seek the sublime 
and the distracting, — that one travels with him as 
a boy accompanies his father, fearless like him, and 
relishing all with the same zest. It is not merely a 
cicerone, but Cicero, wise and eloquent. But he can 
be Juvenal at need — witness his scathing exposure 
of Russian corruption. What is remarkable above 
all is that the mass of Inertia called All the Russias 
should be still what he pictured it, — his figures and 
their surroundings wear the same aspect to-day in 
their successors. Alas! Dumas-Diogenes could not 
find an honest man! No hopes for the aristocracy, 
— none for the bureaucracy, — but yet, he foresees 
that the mass will be free and happy. 

MiKAEL GORTSHAKOV. 



xviii 



Hutbor'0 preface 



I DO not know, dear readers, if you remember, — 
but, there ! it is many years ago ! — my saying : " I 
am going to make the Mediterranean trip. I shall 
write the story of the Old World, — which is nothing 
more or less than that of Civilization." There was a 
good deal of laughter at my vaunt, and more mockery, 

— and a man (the theatrical manager Harel), into 
whose treasury I had turned a million francs, revenged 
himself for my bounty by a rich jest. He said : " Don't 
you know, Dumas has discovered the Mediterranean ! " 
After that, he believed that he had paid me back in 
full. The jest was worth its value, but was that a 
million francs — the profit he made out of my early 
plays? I beg to doubt it. 

My Italian tour was followed by a Spanish one, 
and each by a volume upon it. They were difficult 
to accomplish — the tours, not the books, of course ! 

— without government sustenance and on an author's 
simple revenue; but, with Heaven's help, they were 
not impossible. I may also thank the transportation 
companies, on land and water, charging nothing for 
such valuable merchandise as M. Dumas and secre- 
tary. In these journeys I saw only what others had 



Htttbot'0 IPretace 

seen before me, and narrated them, too, — but even 
if I did so better, the matter would still be second- 
hand. 

My French tour cost six thousand francs; my 
Italian one, eighteen thousand, — apparently, in trav- 
elling, it is not the first step that costs most, — and 
my Spanish one, thirty-two thousand. But, for my 
latest, the Ministry of Public Instruction allotted me 
ten thousand francs — which did not recompense me ; 
but, when a project is achieved, what matters the 
cost? 

Now, the new travels I was to take were on a 
line and of an extent not previously made by any 
one. 

Officiously, if not officially, I was to observe and 
judge the effect of the Czar Alexander XL's eman- 
cipation of the serfs. I engaged to write some articles 
upon the great deed. At a distance, with home ideas 
of liberty and slavery and national reasonings, every- 
body believed, and so did I, that such accounts were 
easily written. It took me many months' stay in 
Russia to show me that, contrariwise, it was the 
hardest task in the world. Another proof is that 
those Russian authorities who have written on the 
subject, no matter to what party or shade of opinion- 
ists they belonged, have never managed to satisfy 
even their own partisans or the holders of their opin- 
ion. At three months' end, after having conversed 
with the personages who urged the emperor to issue 

XX 



Hutbor'6 preface 

the Emancipation Law; with the slaves in whose 
behalf it was issued; with the press-writers who 
clamoured for it; and with the landholders (I do 
not say slaveholders) whom it struck, I flattered 
myself I was in the position to give exact information 
upon its present effect and coming consequences. 

But, in the meantime, that report being neither 
here nor there, — certainly not here, dear reader, so 
be not alarmed ! — I acted on a friendly invitation 
to see Familiar Russia. It was made by a Russian 
friend, — to accompany him in a princely way to 
St. Petersburg and be his best man at his sister-in- 
law's wedding. I was to look on, but I might look 
off upon the grand political operation of the liberation 
of forty-five million serfs. 

But I did not intend to settle down in the New 
Capital. When I should have witnessed the mar- 
riage, and seen all the sites and sights, I meant to 
go on to the Old Capital, Moscow. I also should 
have passed some nights on the Neva River, when one 
can read a love-letter — however fine the handwriting 
— those fair, translucent nights! I should shudder, 
as a shadow would fall athwart the lustrous stream. 
For it would be the shadow of the Holy Terror, — 
that of the Fortress, the Citadel, the doubly saint- 
ridden Peter-and-Paul Castle, — in a word, " The 
Bastile " of Russia, still standing and still swallow- 
ing up talent and wit and poetry, all who war with 
the pen and pencil, thouefh the other is blown, in 

xxi 



Hutbor'6 preface 

dust, afar! I should glean its legends, and the dread 
river would chime in with some of its ghastly mem- 
ories. The Tower's expelled captives would find not 
only a watery grave but an icy tomb. For this, do 
they bless the waters ! In their turn, I should see the 
palaces reflected like the prison, and they would echo 
out their reminiscences of Czars and Czarinas, per- 
ished in their prime of precocity, — parricides crowned 
while the crown was yet warm, torn from the head, 
— pretenders slaughtered, and the cheated and dis- 
heartened self-slain. 

Along the way to Moscow, the " Great Village " 
yet, I should peer into queer places, — abandoned 
palaces of ephemeral favourites, — half-way jails for 
the long string of the '' Siberia-bound," perhaps, such 
as disgraced dukes chained leg to leg with a poacher 
or barnburner, — lingering in their cells to hear, lips 
to ear, their veracious stories, — doleful and dark, but 
letting in light upon that incomprehensible seesaw- 
society. 

I should peep at Tver, that old seat of the inde- 
pendent princes, but absorbed, like Burgundy and 
Brittany, by the sovereign power, by that Louis XL 
of the North, Ivan the Terrible, who slew one of 
his sons and dungeoned the other, — which did not 
gainsay his being " The Great," for he freed his coun- 
try of the Tartar voke. The monarch who drives 
the intruder from his realm is always great to pos- 
terity. 

xxii 



Hutbor's preface 

Next, I should enter the Hallowed City, mount- 
ing the Czar's citadel to view not only the palace- 
cathedral, but the domes golden or green, the crum- 
bling Kremlin, the innumerable belfries, and traces 
still of the monstrous conflagration devouring the 
town of thirty-five thousand souls and singeing into 
flight an army five hundred thousand strong. Covet- 
ously, I should gaze upon the bazaars, and listen in 
the caravansaries to the legends of Menschikof the 
beggar-boy become prime minister and dying, in 
Siberia, a convict; and the Cinderella rising to Czar- 
ina. I should see the Trinity Church where its sanc- 
tity did not protect the infant Czar Peter and his 
mother, even though on the altar, — where he vowed 
to exterminate his would-be murderers, — and the 
Strelitz Guards were to perish thereby. 

I should feast my eyes on the treasuries of sanctu- 
aries, crown armories, and the great annual fairs, — 
attracting trade out of Persia, China, the Ind, where 
flashed Circassian arms, Tula silverware, and Cathay 
gold filagree; where malachite and lapis lazuli are 
sold in blocks like ice; where turquoises are poured 
out by the bushel ; where one is delighted — or dis- 
gusted — tastes differ ! — by the caravan tea, bought 
by the Russ at its weight in silver and by Europeans 
at that in gold. 

I should sail on the Volga — the Queen of Euro- 
pean waters, as the Amazon to one America and the 
Mississippi tP the other; I should hawk the heron 

xxiii 



autbor's preface 

and chase the frosted- white hare; I should taste 
the fresh caviare and discover that the famous sterlet 
is nothing but sturgeon young; I should lie on price- 
less furs while listening to the tales of the hunters 
who risked death or mutilation to obtain them. 

Then, on the interminable Steppes I should dwell 
some days with the nomads, where the endless verdure 
undulated to the stretch of sight, like the Caspian's 
billows. These Tartars would be the hosts of to-day, 
as they were the bogies of my boyhood : little, greasy, 
yellow gnomes, with long beards, pointed caps, and full 
red breeches, armed with spears and bow and arrows. 

Standing in a balcony window of a princess's draw- 
ing-room, I should look out on Europe streaming into 
India, and Asia jflowing into the colder world. 

Leaving the Kalmuck Tartars on one hand and the 
Cossacks on the other, I should visit Taganrog, where 
an emperor (Alexander I.) died of regret — or re- 
morse — at conniving at his father's '' removal " ; 
and Kertch, where Mithridates the poison-proof had 
to use a vulgar mode of death to avoid the Romans 
in pursuit. And I should reach Galatz. Thence, a 
look around to see if Semlin and Belgrade were not 
as usual at war, and, ho! up the river to Vienna. 
Vienna is next door to Paris, and in three days I 
should be among ye to say : " Dear readers, I have, 
in six months, run over six thousand miles, gathering 
amusement for you ! Do you know me again ? Here 
I am ! " Alexandre Dumas. 



Contente 



CHAPTER FAGB 

Foreword v 

Author's Preface xix 

I. Ivan, " The Terrible " i 

II. The Romance of the False Demetrius . 14 

III. The Romance of Peter the Great . • 31 

IV. The Romance of the Strelitz Guard . . 67 

V. The Romance of Cinderella the Czarina . 84 

VI. The Legend of Lestocq 102 

VII. The Romance of the Boy Czar . . • 113 

VIII. The Romance of Catherine the Great . 128 

IX. A Romance of the Russian Bastile . . 165 

X. A Romance of the Frigid Neva . . .176 

XI. The Romance of a Czaricide .... 197 

XII. The Romancists' Revolution .... 218 

XIII. The Romance of a Poet 241 

XIV. The Siberian Road — as Travelled by the 

People 257 

XV. The Siberian Road as Travelled by the 

Nobles 272 

XVI. Corruption in Russia 291 

Chronological Table of the Rulers of 

Russia 311 

Index 313 



Xi0t of 1IIlu0tration0 

— ♦ — 

PAGE 

Czar Peter I Frontispiece 

Czar Feodor i8 

Czar Alexis , 35 

Charles XII. of Sweden '44 

Grand Duchess Sophia 69 

Czarina Catherine 1 84 

Count Munich 104 

Czarina Anna 113 

Czarina Catherine II 128 

Czar Peter III 136 

Count Potemkine 148 

Count Orloff 160 

Czar Paul 1 197 

Czar Nicholas I. 223 

Czarina Elizabeth 232 

Czar Peter II . . 277 



Celebrateb Crimes of tbe 
1Ru88ian Court 



CHAPTER I. 

IVAN, "the terrible " 
(1533 -1584) 

The most celebrated of the Ivans, emperors of the 
Russias, has been called '' the Louis XL of the 
North " ; but he was, in the body, much more like 
King Henry VHL of England, and resembled him 
morally in having had seven or eight wives when the 
Greek Church, which was his, allows but four marital 
unions to the orthodox. He is one of the most 
curious and gloomy tyrants to study; yet, without 
claims, he has attained historical height and popular 
respect is attached to his memory. 

As he drew his first breath, Russian freedom was 
exhaling its last: to the slave, captured in war, and 
the serf, the slave born to the land, was added the 
peasant, by being clamped to the earth which he tilled 
and with which he went at a sale. 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusatan Court 

He was son, this fourth Ivan, of a Basil son<-of- 
Basil (Vasili-VasihewitcH), a grand prince or grand 
duke, first designated as Czar (Tsar). His Russia, 
though of the sixteenth century, was still as Slavonic 
as in the eleventh. The dimensions of his '' Grand 
Russia " were as " Little Russia " to what they be- 
came when his rule terminated after fifty years. 

His fate to earn such a name as " The Terrible " 
was inherited; his mother, Helena, was, without ex- 
aggeration, hailed as being a combination of Agrip- 
pina, Poppeia, and Messalina. She was the second 
regent in Russia, her predecessor being Olga of note. 

Although Ivan's father had Basil for his patron 
saint, he chose to devote the boy to St. Sergius. On 
his birthday, the proud father placed the infant in that 
saint's shrine, in Trinity Cathedral of Moscow. This 
shrine is in brass and was covered by a solid silver 
baldaquin, weighing ten quintals — the gift of the 
Empress Anna. She, alone, seems to have thought in 
her time that the dedication was of some good to the 
country. 

The Scriptures are profuse in picturing the evils 
when a boy prince reigns — through others, but they 
do not prophesy those happening through others. In 
this case, the regent-mother was poisoned, her fa- 
vourite imprisoned, and the Prince Chouiski, who had 
subverted the ruling powers, took command over the 
heir, then seven years old. As the usual first step 
of a usurper, the treasury was pillaged, the state lands 



Hvan, **Ube UerdblC' 

seized, and the adherents of the past regime driven 
afar. Chouiski, on at least one occasion, received 
ambassadors, seated on the throne, with his spurred 
boots resting on the chest of young Ivan, prostrate 
before him. The unhappy princeling's childhood 
passed amid barbarian saturnalias. As the last of 
the house of Rurik fell, the Old Russia crumbled 
away. 

The boy was forced to witness public executions, for 
which the Chouiskies had been judges and in which 
they actually took a hand with the sword or axe. In 
spite of his tears in fright, he saw Prince Belski cut 
to pieces in the council-chamber, and Woronzoff, an- 
other prince (hoyard), trampled to death. This daily 
sight of blood-spilling did not tend to making the 
observer humane. Indeed, he listened with precocity 
to hints that his thraldom might terminate with the 
overthrow of the tyrants, if he gave the word. But it 
was not until his fourteenth year that Ivan was able to 
consult with his uncles, the Glinskies. In a hunt they 
rushed out of ambush, and, encouraged by the prince, 
fell upon the Chouiskies, whom they threw to the 
dogs, who ate them up alive. 

The enslavement was followed by utter freedom, 
perhaps as injurious. The new friends assured Ivan 
that all he saw was his : people, lands, houses , their 
wealth and lives. Courtiers are the same all the 
world over; it was the minister opening a window 
in Versailles Palace and telling the young Louis XV. 

3 



Celebtatet) Cttntes of tbe IRusstan Court 

that all he saw was his property. Ivan was urged to 
reward without stint and spare nothing in punishment. 
On the complete destruction of the mind, they hoped 
to sustain their power. To torture men he was trained 
to torture animals. They pushed his hand to throw 
household pets from tower tops, and held the lance for 
him to prick bears and lions in their cages. 

One day the young ruler was aroused by the shouts 
and alarm of a fire; fires in wooden towns were 
always a terror; he rose, and looked around for his 
usual companions. The Glinskies were not there. He 
ran to the window, whence he saw the town aflame 
— Moscow burning down for the tenth or twelfth time. 
On pikes borne by men, infuriated with hideous glee, 
and amid the torches which had ignited the oppressors* 
palaces, he recognized the severed heads of his uncles. 

But in the midst of the clamour and the carnage, 
one fanatic thrust himself between the young prince 
and the mob. It was a second Peter the Hermit, who, 
like the Jewish prophets and the Moslem dervishes, 
did not shrink from attacking the king himself. This 
monk, Sylvester, stepping up to the throne, the Bible 
in his hand, and lifting his right to heaven, thun- 
dered that Heaven was wroth against cruel princes, 
and that their crimes kindled that wrath. At the same 
time his young and fair bride was brought in; young 
Ivan ran to her and promised, on her head, to repent 
and behave better. To this bold-speaking monk and 



Iran, ''Ube UetdblC' 

ameliorating wife joined a nobleman known for his 
piety and bravery. 

For fourteen years, Russia blessed this triumvirate 
of Sylvester, Anastasia, and Adaschef. During this 
period, peace and order prevailed; the army was 
made regular and the militia-guard {Strelitz) created; 
a standing army of seven thousand Germans was 
formed; landlords were compelled to provide, for so 
much land, an armed soldier, or pay in cash. 

Having an army. Prince Ivan sought to make use 
of it, though he was not a warrior. 

In 1552, he attacked Kasan. It was the boundary- 
mark where Asia began at that era. Kasan was a 
capital in the immense Mongolian empire; its khanate 
was in the fifteenth century strong enough to defy 
the Golden Order {Horde) ; its history was of con- 
flict between the Tartars and Russians. Ivan crossed 
the Volga — the Russian river, as the Mississippi is 
the North American, and the Amazon the South 
American. His formidable army camped in the vast 
plain from the Volga to the sea. A monument is 
reared here to the Russians fallen in his assault of 
October in the same year. The engineers had de- 
molished the citadel (kremlin) with gunpowder, and 
by the breach the Russians entered. The fighting 
went on from house to house, with the carnage en- 
gendered by opposition in race, creed, and manners. 

So sure was Ivan that he would conquer that he 
had brought a portable wooden chapel, installed on 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRuBstan Court 

the field of victory, and the prayers of thanksgiving 
were said in it. The tumulus, no doubt, occupies its 
site. The mosques were thrown down and the stones 
used for churches. And, as the foundation-stone of 
the Moslem temples was found to rest on a cross, the 
custom sprang up, in Russian ecclesiastical building, 
to set the foundation-stone of a church on a crescent. 
A town hereby retains the name of King's-town, as a 
hill known as the King's Mountain, from the victor 
dining on the summit to view his prize and the river, 
which from its sluggishness a witty traveller has 
styled, " A hesitation of water for five thousand 
miles ! " Within two years Ivan had made himself 
master of this region to the Caspian Sea, comprising 
the richest capital, Astrakan (Star of the Desert). 
He raised forts to repress the Tartars, and was saved 
from battling with the Turks by their army perish- 
ing in the desert between the Volga and the Ural 
Mountains. In his time, Siberia was added to his 
realm. Poland was likewise attached. The Russians 
caught a forecast of the prospect, — a great destiny, 
and might measure their forces doomed to be con- 
centrated in a few hands; and to expand they or- 
ganized despotism — that foe to healthy expansion. 

Their chief was a typical leader. A large, robust 
frame ; a very full chest and broad shoulders ; shaggy 
hair and imposing beard ; eyes very bright and lively ; 
the features regular and under some control; the 
complexion rather fair than dark. 

6 



irvan, **Zbc ZcttMc'* 

The rq)ublic and its capital, Novgorod, had a pro- 
found fame as a stronghold. A proverb ran, '' None 
can contend against Heaven or Novgorod the Great ! " 
It had submitted to his grandfather; Ivan imagined 
that it had revolted against him. He assailed and 
stormed the city without resistance, but, after slaying 
all in his advance, drove the rest into a vast staked 
enclosure, and thence, by cuttings in the ice, out upon 
the Volga, where famished bears, wolves, and dogs 
were let loose upon them. These creatures tore them 
to pieces, for the soldiers on the banks repulsed the 
fugitives. These massacres lasted a month, and when 
twenty thousand innocent wretches had perished, the 
conqueror (!) said seriously to his captains: "Pray 
for — me! " 

Passing on to Tver, he overran it, and perpetrated 
the like crimes and madness; but, with the contra- 
dictoriness of a maniac, when he captured the petty 
republic of Pskof he spared the people and replaced 
the chief burghers in their offices. 

Covered with cypress rather than palm and laurel, 
he marched toward Moscow, where a premonitory 
thrill saddened the people. They saw funeral-pyres 
set up among gibbets, and on these pyres large cal- 
drons. Five hundred nobles, after being racked, were 
hung on these gallows-trees or boiled in the caldrons; 
others did not arrive at the execution, as the heads- 
men hacked them to pieces on the road. 

The homicidal monsters of yore usually refrained 

7 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

from slaughter of women and children ; but the terri- 
ble Ivan overlooked none. Wives were hanged at 
their house doorways so that their husbands and sons 
had to brush by them, — and it was forbidden for the 
corpses to be cut down I Children were impaled on 
seats at table, so that the family had to take their 
meals with that gruesome parody of " the vacant 
chair." Not Phalaris, Nero, or Caligula invented 
such horrors. 

Despite these blood-spots and shades, peace had 
its victories. The printing-press was introduced; the 
Emperor Charles V. was asked to provide a hundred 
artists and artisans of all kinds ; Archangel was estab- 
lished, that port-hole looking on the north, as St. 
Petersburg was, later, to be the window on the west; 
the privileges of the nobles were curtailed ; the clergy 
were checked in becoming landholders; paganistic 
practices disappeared, and a code was made of the 
confused laws. 

In this brief Golden Age of Ivan, by his union with 
the Princess Sophia, daughter of Michael Paleologus, 
heiress to the Greek empire, whose uncle had died 
of grief at the Turks invading the Byzantine realm in 
1453, — by this union, we repeat, Ivan might esteem 
himself heir to the same. In Ivan's foundation- 
church, '* The Protection," in Moscow, is the arm- 
chair offered to him on this marriage by the am- 
bassadors who came from Rome on this occasion. He 
thereupon changed the old Russian emblem of the 

8 



ITvart, **xrbe XTecriblC 

Slavonian Knight for the Double-headed Eagle, as 
sovereign of Constantinople. This eagle looks two 
ways, to the east and to the west, foreseeing Russia 
bathed in the Black, the White, the Yellow, and — 
remoter still — the Red Seas. It was connected with 
Ivan that the word Tsar, or Czar, was employed; 
hitherto the Muscovites had been content with grand 
duke or grand prince {Valiki Kniass). Some author- 
ities hold the word Czar to be a corruption of Caesar; 
others that it is the Babylonian and Ninevite final of 
osor, ezzar, asar, etc., to royal names, signifying the 
throne or authority. As Ivan became master of lands 
governed by the Tartars, and their chiefs had the 
title of Tsar, he simply took it over with the conquest, 
intimated Voltaire. However, Queen Elizabeth, who 
wished to keep friendly with the Russian potentate, 
since England had the sea-carriage fur trade, styled 
Ivan " emperor '' ; this was not confirmed until the 
European powers so recognized Peter the Great, a 
hundred and fifty years later. The present Russians 
use " Gospodar Imperator " where we use Czar. 

At all events, whatever his title, Ivan assumed the 
luxury of the Caesars. Edward VI.'s ambassador tells 
of a six hours' banquet to a hundred guests, who ate 
off gold plate and were served by domestics who 
changed their attire, though magnificent, four times; 
another guest noticed three gold drinking-cups a foot 
wide, and counted thirty-eight silver dishes. It is true 



Celebrated (Trimes ot tbe IRusBtan Court 

that the cookery was, in harmony, " terrible," says 
a good judge. 

The dark lining to this splendour was not slow to 
appear. 

The Tartars, including Mongols, again threatened 
Moscow. Under Ivan it was considered " the Queen 
of Russian Cities." It was of astonishing extent, more 
like villages agglomerated than a city, and in the 
midst was the cathedral built by Ivan in token of 
his Kasan victory, very high, and having an enor- 
mous bell. The architect so pleased him with this 
masterpiece that he had his eyes put out so that he 
should not design a counterpart ! The barbarians had 
burnt former Moscows, and, this time, they came so 
near that a ford is pointed out as bearing their name. 
Ivan fled to shut himself up at Alexandrovski, where he 
turned monk, with three hundred of his myrmidons, 
who had to expiate deeds of bloodshed, too. 

But his people would not let him shun them ; they 
dote on their tyrants, — nations do at times. 

Without their dread prince, how could they defend 
themselves? Why did he flee? Did they frighten 
him? Had not the great lord a right of life and 
death over them? The state could not exist without 
the master! To say nothing of the realm, how about 
his abandoning religion, by which so many souls 
might yet be saved? 

So he returned, like Charles V., out of the monas- 
tery, but in sombre sadness. To this melancholy mad- 

lO 



ir\>an, *'Ubc XTertible 



ff 



man, all the foes of peace, welfare, and justice whis- 
pered evil. Was the death of his beloved Anastasia 
natural? The Czar had witnessed so many hastened 
deaths that he readily believed this slander. It was 
also asserted that the princes were ready to over- 
throw him. His ministers had beguiled him by witch- 
craft, they told him. 

Forgetting the effect of his brief encloistering, he 
resumed the orgies and massacres surrounding his 
boyhood; he stabbed a noble who had struck his 
favourite; he saw another slain at the altar for ven- 
turing remonstrances ; he exiled the general who had 
taken Kasan; he tortured the Voyvode Scheremetoff, 
questioning him during the torture: 

" What have you done with your treasure ? " 

" By the hands of the poor, I gave it to Christ ! '* 
was the exasperating reply. 

Thenceforth, his reign was that of the Terrible 
Czar. After the nobles, his own son; he slew Ivan 
with a stake, or, as some assert, sat him on the throne 
and killed him there; he sent another son into the 
dungeon; one of his victims, caught disguised as a 
monk, was placed on a keg of powder and Ivan had 
fire set to it, saying : " Cenobites are angels, and 
should fly in the air ! " He baked a prince in an oven, 
and had a treasurer and his four sons killed by the 
Chinese torture of "being hewn in a thousand pieces" ; 
he threw boiling water on his jester, and, when the 
sufferer could not laugh at the jest, stabbed him; 



Celebrate^ Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Coutt 

in short, by a death-strewn way he was approaching 
death. 

His body had collapsed, says a chronicler who saw 
him ; "his head was bald ; his beard so scanty that 
it was a disfigurement ; his eyes were dead and sunken ; 
bestial ferocity deformed his features." 

A comet appearing in 1584, the popular voice 
greeted it as signifying release from the tyranny of 
Ivan IV. He believed it himself, for he called magi- 
cians and astrologers to a house in Moscow provided 
for their arts, and forced them to name his death-day. 
He went out upon a platform of his favourite church, 
and humbly asked the prayers of the lowliest. He 
tried to trade with Heaven for good terms. But, 
happening to recover on the day designated as fatal, 
he said that the soothsayers had made a blunder, — 
that it was they who should die and not he! He felt 
so well that he sat to a game of chess ; when, playing 
a pawn against his partner, he stood up, but fell back- 
wards, and died on his bed. 

He had killed one son; he designated another to 
succeed him, and another was in the cradle. It was 
the Demetrius (Dmitri) whose murder led to the 
famous incident of " the False Demetrius.'' Ivan is 
remembered as " The Terrible." Perhaps an auto- 
crat alone can justly judge an autocrat. In this case, 
hear what the Czar Nicholas wrote of him, at the 
age of fourteen : " Czar Ivan Vasiliewitch was severe 
and headstrong. Hence he was dubbed * The Terrible.' 

12 



Yet he was brave ( ?), just, and liberal in his rewards; 
above all, he contributed to his country's happiness 
and development." But he was also called " The 
Great " by his contemporaries, because he freed his 
country from the Tartar yoke; and a man is always 
great in posterity's eyes who drives out a foreign 
tyrant, as we repeat. 



13 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE ROMANCE OF THE FALSE DEMETRIUS 
(1591) 

The temptation of a kingdom is so tremendous 
that there is no realm without its Perkin Warbecks 
and Lambert Simnels, — that is, pretenders to the 
throne by natural claim. The " Prisoner of the Tem- 
ple," for Russia, is the "Little Dmitri." The site 
of his terrible tragedy is Uglitch, a town built on an 
elbow of the Volga, where the shore slopes toward 
the plain whereon it is built. The time was 1591. 

Czar Ivan the Terrible, in dying, left two sons, — 
Feodor and Demetrius; a third son, Ivan, he had 
killed in a mad outburst. 

Feodor succeeded his father, and the title of heir 
apparent, the Czarowitch, passed gn to Demetrius 
(Dmitri), though the Greek Church only recognizes 
as lawful the children of one's first four marriages, 
and Ivan had married seven or eight times. 

But, as the prince was weak and gentle, he was not 
presaged a long life, and troubles were feared unless 
the next comer, Demetrius, should be assured in his 
seat. Feodor's great pleasure, when he had scrupu- 

14 



Ubc IRomance of tbe ifalse Demetrius 

lously said his prayers, was to read pious legends or 
to ring the bells with his own hands to summon the 
reverent to mass. " A sacristan," sneered his sire, 
" and not a sovereign ! " 

As society was constituted then, and with such a 
disposition, so peculiar an empire as Russia could 
not be managed ; so Feodor, engrossed by his religious 
duties and recreations, let all the business of state 
be conducted by his brother-in-law, Boris Godunof. 

By the dead hand, the town of Uglitch was assigned 
to Demetrius as appanage. Boris assigned to him, in 
his turn, to watch over him, — or, rather, " keep " 
him, — the Dowager Czarina, Maria Feodorowna, and 
the boy's three uncles. 

In 1 59 1, young Demetrius, holding court at ten, 
had his little train of officers. They were spies for 
the regent. The three uncles were high livers, deep 
toss-pots, and fierce gamblers, always grasping out 
for money. Now, the paymaster was a tool of the 
regent; he resisted irregular payments, and, as he 
was sustained on appeals to high quarters by his 
master Boris, the three dependents inveighed against 
him, and, with their sister joining, inspired the young 
prince with hatred for the ruler. This enmity was 
heightened by the tale she was filled with ; it was said 
that the Czar's health was shattered by magic used 
by Tartars for Boris's gains; one of them, Michael, 
was an astrologer, and credited with torturing the 
sovereign by wounding and singeing a wax image, 

15 



Celebratet) Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

like Feodor, according to recognized practices of the 
Black Art. 

As for Demetrius, he was plainly Ivan the Terrible's 
child ; he delighted in animals fighting. He tormented 
them so that the sensitive Boris revolted. Finally, a 
great crime was imputed to him, akin to the wax 
images. One winter day, while he was playing out- 
doors with his pages, they made some snow-men. But 
they named them after the favourites of the regent, 
and on the biggest bestowed his name. Then, with 
coping-stones pulled off a crumbling wall, for snow- 
balls were too soft, they stoned all the snow images, 
while the prince, armed with a wooden sword, sliced 
the head off the facsimile Godunof , saying : 

" I shall do that really, when I am big enough ! " 
In midafternoon of the 15th of May, 1591, young 
Demetrius, whose mother had quitted him briefly, 
was playing with four boys, his pages and companions, 
in the palace yard, a vast enclosed place. His govern- 
ess, his nurse, and a waiting-maid were also by. 
He had strewn some nuts on the ground and was 
amusing himself by stabbing them, with a knife. Sud- 
denly, without the slightest outcry being heard, the 
nurse saw the boy writhing on the ground and bathed 
in his own blood. Running to him, she saw that his 
throat was cut and the artery spouting. He expired 
as she arrived, without gasping a word. At the 
nurse's shriek, out ran the Czarina, who caught up a 
stick and began to beat the governess violently with 

16 



Zbc IRomance ot tbe ffalse 2)emetrtus 

It, accusing her of complicity with the murderers. 
Frantic with grief, she called her brothers, to show 
them the dead child, and threw all the responsibility 
for the deed upon the treasurer, Bitiagovski. 

As usual, one of the three uncles, Michael Nagi, 
was drunk. He ordered the alarm-bell to be tolled. 
Believing it was for fire, everybody came at the run. 
The Czarina showed the dead prince, the governess 
swooned under the caning, and as Bitiagovski joined 
the spectators, accompanied by his son and gentlemen, 
she declared : 

" There you see the assassins ! " 

Bitiagovski tried to defend himself, alleging that 
the child had cut himself during an epileptic fit, to 
which he was subject; but to all his denials and 
plausible explanations the mother replied by the sen- 
tence of accusation, hate, and sorrow : 

" Behold the murderer ! " 

The treasurer saw that reasoning was useless, and 
that the twenty arms raised against him would not 
be lenient. He ran into the nearest doorway, one of 
a detached outbuilding, and barred them out; but 
the door was staved in, and, after just a short defence, 
he was killed under knives, clubs, and forks. His son 
was cut to pieces by his side. 

The exasperation ran so high that one of the gov- 
erness's serfs, who had tried to replace a cap snatched 
off her by one of the Nagis as a token of degradation, 
was killed and torn to pieces. The governess's son 

17 



Celebtatet) Cttmes of tbe IRusstan Court 

was slain under her eyes, as she returned to her senses. 
Some priests saved the daughters of the treasurer. 

The tidings of this butchery reached Moscow, where 
the Czar Feodor declared that he would go down to 
Uglitch to inquire into it. 

As he was leaving, Boris ordered a part of the 
city to be set fire; the alarm of "Moscow burns!" 
resounded in the king's ears, and he turned to see 
his chief city in flames. He wavered and turned inside 
the walls, as he might by his presence save his capital, 
but he could not save his brother, already dead. And 
Godunof undertook to manage the inquiry and punish 
the guilty. The inquest remains recorded and the 
papers in the original exist in the archives at Moscow ; 
but historians allege that no faith can be put in docu- 
ments written under the pressure of a minister so 
mighty as Boris Godunof. In the statement, however, 
it appeared that the young Demetrius killed himself 
with the blade he was playing with. All the accu- 
sations lodged by the Czarina and her brothers against 
Bitiagovski and his children were the result of folly 
or hatred. This judgment was solemnly delivered. 
The Dowager Czarina, under the name of Marfa, was 
condemned to go into retirement in the St. Nicholas 
Nunnery, by Tcherepovetz ; her two brothers, Michael 
and Gregory, were exiled from the capital to a dis- 
tance of five hundred miles; two hundred of the 
inhabitants of Uglitch, after all were styled rebels, 
were tortured to death, and a hundred others, their 

i8 




CZAR FEODOR. 



Xlbe •Romance ot tbe jfalse Demetrius 

tongues cut out, were flung into dungeons. Under 
the weight of terror, the population dispersed, and 
the thirty thousand souls dwindled down to eight. 
They were driven into Siberia, where they founded 
the town of Pelim. 

The bell which knelled the alarm was tried, like all 
connected with the drama, its upshot more dreadful 
than the outset. It was doomed to constant exile; 
one of its ears was knocked off, it was knouted, and 
lost its natural rights — that is, it was forbidden to 
be rung again! In 1847, however, the Uglitchese 
petitioned to be allowed a bell, and, the mercy being 
granted, the news was transmitted to Siberia, where 
the exiles' descendants were informed of the restora- 
tion. The bell was found at Irkutsk, where there was 
great rejoicing; the bishop reconsecrated it, and the 
exiles proposed, after decorating it with flowers, to 
escort it back to its old perch. But they had not 
foreseen one thing, — where were the funds to come 
from for its thousand-league journey? When it was 
ciphered out that it would cost some ten or twelve 
thousand rubles, no one would proceed; and the bell 
remains, blessed but banished. But its employment 
was warranted, and it rings nowadays whenever a 
convict is liberated, a joy-bell if ever there was one. 

Having recounted the historical facts resulting from 
the inquiry into the Demetrius fatality, let us tell the 
legend accompanying it; it is based on the axiom, 
*' To find the guilty, seek who profits by the deed.'* 

19 



(Telcbratet) Crimes of tbe 1Ru55tan Court 

The only man who had an interest in young De- 
metrius dying was Godunof, — hence he is accused, 
and the voice of the people rose against him. 

Since a long while the Czarina had suspected regi- 
cidal intentions, and watched her son. Nikon, the 
annalist, positively says that several baffled attempts 
to poison the Prince Demetrius were made. Seeing 
that poison did not work, Boris had recourse to the 
steel. Looking for assassins. Czar Feodor's page 
brought him a ready man; it was Bitiagovski, who, 
for lucre, agreed, with his son and nephew, to kill 
the heir apparent. But as three murderers were not 
enough to slay a boy, they added to their ranks the 
governess's son, Osip Volokho'f, and a gentleman 
named Tretiatikof. This band won over the govern- 
ess to stand neutral, and one Vasilissa promised to 
draw the Czarina aside. 

The boy was alone at the instant on the palace 
steps when the band was lurking. Volokhof went 
up to him, and, taking hold of his collar to loosen 
it and allow the steel to find its way, said: 

" Is this a new collar your Highness is wearing? " 

" Nay, it's an old one," replied the youth. 

Scarcely had he uttered the words before he felt 
the wound, and raised a slight cry, as this wound 
was trivial. At this, the other bravoes ran up and 
finished him. The sexton was on the lookout, and ran 
up into the belfry, where he rang the bell. 

The two stories tally so far. The reader is free 

20 



Ubc IRomance ot tbe ffalse Demetrius 

to adopt one or the other, or accept the third, on which 
is established the claim of the false Demetrius. But, 
anyway, the popular voice accusesi Boris of com- 
plicity. 

Some time after this tragedy Czarina Irene gave 
birth to a girl. The law conceding the succession 
to females was not existent. Boris was accused of 
having put away a boy, really born, and substituted 
a girl; then, as she did not live, he was held to have 
had her poisoned. 

In 1588, Feodor dying, or, more truly, dying off, 
— a death long foreseen, — Boris was inevitably 
designated as the murderer. Something like the terri- 
ble Macbeth legend lies in this fatality pursuing the 
remnants of the house of Rurik, and in Boris's prog- 
ress to the throne. He assembled three magicians 
and consulted them. 

" Thou shalt reign," said one. 

" Good ! " said the consulter, at the height of glad- 
ness. 

" But for seven years only," went on the sooth- 
sayers. 

" What matters the duration ! Seven days will 
suffice so long as I reign! " retorted Boris. 

In the Red Church, built a hundred years after the 
tragedy, is preserved the silver tomb in which were 
placed the young prince's remains. On a brass platter, 
in a shallow vessel, is some earth, said to be blood- 
dyed when the yictini fell ; at each corner held by clasps 

21 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

is a nut, the four being from among those he was play- 
ing with when stabbed. The question arises why the 
veneration for such rehcs, and what interest the usurper 
Boris had in making the death so visible to all eyes? 
The policy was clear; his act assumed the mask of 
piety. He wanted the death of the heir to be public 
and assured, as it cleared his way to the throne. His 
genius may have foreseen the false Demetrius, and 
he wished to shut out all chance of profiting by public 
credulity. But he had not gone far enough that 
way. 

At the close of a famine and a plague, which deso- 
lated Russia from 1601 to 1603, — afflictions which 
the Russians obstinately regarded to be a sign of the 
usurper's fall, — a rumour out of the Lithuanian 
border spread itself with frightful rapidity through all 
the provinces. 

The Czarowitch, murdered at Uglitch, was alive 
and had been seen in Poland ! 

This Demetrius was now a youth of twenty-two, 
just the age of the prince by this; he was not tall, 
but he had Ivan's broad shoulders, with his mother's 
swarthy complexion; his face was broad, with a 
coarse nose, high cheekbones, thick lips, and two warts 
on his face. He had red hair and little beard. The 
warts were on the forehead and under the eye, re- 
spectively. " Painted without the warts," he would 
not have been identified, for he founded his recog- 
nition on the disfigurement. 

22 



Zbc IRomance ot tbe ffalse Demetrius 

The story of the discovery of the hidden prince 
came about as follows : 

One day, at Brahin, when Prince Adam Viszniowiski 
was taking his bath, his young valet, who recently 
entered his service, bungled an order he had received. 

The prince was irritable, and, like all the lords of 
his era, quick with the hand. He gave him a box on 
the ear and called him a dog, a familiar epithet among 
the Turks, Poles, and Russians. The young domestic 
drew back a step, and, instead of complaining other- 
wise, said, gently: 

" Oh, Prince Adam, if you knew who I am, you 
would not treat me so! But as I am your servant I 
have nothing to say." 

" Who are you, and whence? " demanded the Pole. 

" I am the Czarowitch Demetrius, son of Czar Ivan 
the Great." 

" You the Prince Dmitri ? " sneered the prince. 
" Tell your tale to the gossips. We know that the 
little prince was murdered long ago at Uglitch, by 
orders of the Regent Boris Godunof ! " 

" You and all the rest of the world are mistaken," 
persisted the young man ; " and the proof is that my 
father Ivan's son is before your eyes." 

The startled noble requiring an explanation, this 
was given him : 

Bent on ridding himself of the heir, Boris had 
summoned a doctor named Simonet, a Wallach, and 
offered him considerable money to do away with 

23 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

Prince Demetrius. The good doctor was on the other 
side, and, while pretending to enter into the scheme, 
informed the Czarina. Consequently, on the night 
fixed for the murder, for the pretender held to it that 
the event happened after dark, the Czarowitch was 
hidden behind the stove, — the stove in Russian and 
north country houses is a structure of earthenware, 
which takes the place in their tales of the Old Oak 
Chest, — while a serf-boy was placed in his bed. 

This was the youth who was stabbed, and the Czaro- 
witch, from his hiding-place, witnessed the tragedy. 
In the midst of the confusion following the act, the 
doctor took him away. For the first refuge, he guided 
him to Prince Ivan Mstislavski, in the Ukraine, who 
on his death had passed him into Lithuania, after hav- 
ing gone as far as Moscow. Thence he had gone to 
Vologda, leaving it to enter the Viszniowiski house- 
hold. 

As the hearer appeared still to doubt, the young man 
produced a Russian seal, bearing the arms of the 
Czarowitch as well as his name, — the Russians attach 
great weight to family seals, — and a gold cross or- 
namented with diamonds, which he declared had been 
given him on his baptism by his godfather, this Prince 
Ivan Mstislavski. At the sight of these tokens, the 
prince passed from astonishment to belief, craved 
pardon for the insult and the cuff, and begged the 
valet, found to be so exalted, to await him in the 
outer room while he dressed. When ready to do the 

24 



Ube IRomance ot tbe false Demetrius 

honours, he desired his wife to have a sumptuous 
supper as to the Czar of Muscovy! His stablemen 
were to harness six dapple-gray horses, with a foot- 
man in rich livery to lead one each. His coachman 
was to make a suitable carriage ready, and his steward 
was to fill it with cushions and rugs. Going into the 
room where the pretender waited, he took him to the 
window, where he showed him these preparations in 
progress, and, beckoning in other domestics, whose 
arms were loaded with brocade caftans, sable pelisses, 
and weapons of damascened steel, he fell on his knees 
to him, saying: 

'' Please your Majesty to accept these trifles, — all 
I possess is at your service." 

The Czarowitch was publicly recognized in this 
manner : 

The prince simply presented him as the son of Ivan 
the Terrible, and the first time he came out under this 
title a Russian named Petrovski threw himself at his 
feet and proclaimed that he clearly recognized the 
young master, known at Uglitch. Henceforth, all 
doubts fled, and a court of noble Polanders ranged 
themselves around the lost prince. 

Imagine the effect of all this tale in Moscow, under 
the reign of a man as universally detested as was 
Boris Godunof. Further details came flooding in. 
The young prince, who certainly would claim his 
throne, appeared perfectly at ease in the grand abodes, 
rode admirably, was skilful with the pistol and the 

25 



Celebrated Crtmes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

sabre, spoke Russ like his mother tongue, and even 
knew some Latin. It was the education of a gentle- 
man, well brought up. 

News came in rapid succession now. 

The Polish prince, who had indignantly refused 
money offered by the regent for the rival, took him 
to the Sandomir Palatinate, the province of his brother- 
in-law, George Mnizek. There an old soldier, pris- 
oner to the Russians at Pskof Siege, recognized him. 
The palatine's daughter fell in love with him. He 
engaged, in writing, to espouse her when he should 
be on a sure footing at Moscow. 

King Sigismond, the Russians' old foe, welcomed 
him, gave him as Czarowitch an appanage of forty 
thousand florins, and authorized the Poles to enlist 
under his standard. A little army was mustered of 
these Poles, five or six thousand, nearly double as 
many Cossacks, and a few hundred Russian exiles. 
With this force, he marched upon Moscow, where he 
met Prince Mstislavski, preceding him with over forty 
thousand daredevils. He gained one battle, but lost a 
second, whereupon he fled to Pultawa. Here he 
thwarted the plot of three monks sent by Boris to 
poison him. He turned over to the mob the nobles 
to whom the monks were commissioned, and they 
were shot to death with arrows. He wrote to the 
usurper that he would be clement with him; if he 
would hasten to abandon the throne and go into the 



26 



Xlbe IRomance of tbe ffalse Demetrius 

cloisters, he would overlook his crimes and take him 
under his lofty protection. 

This insolent pledge reached Boris just as his sister, 
Irene, who had always blamed his usurpation, died 
suddenly in a nunnery, and when the people, who fell 
into the habit of blaming Boris for everything, ac- 
cused him of poisoning her. This fresh accusation 
and the adventurer's insult struck him a final blow. 

On the 13th of April, 1605, he felt unwell at a 
council of state, staggered after rising, and fell in 
a swoon. On shortly reviving, he clad himself as a 
monk, chose a name for a convert, " Bogolup " (or 
"Pleasant to God"), and called for the holy men. 
The same day he expired in the bosom of his family. 
Whereupon, as it was agreed to accuse him of crime 
up to the last, it was said that he had poisoned himself 
to escape the vengeance of the rightful prince! 

On the 20th of June, 1605, ^^e false Demetrius — 
who knows but that he was the true one ? — presented 
himself at Moscow gates. Notables of all classes 
rushed to welcome him and bestowed rich gifts, among 
which was a great golden platter with bread and salt, 
token of a vassal's homage to his sovereign. Their 
speech was blunt and in character with the age : 

" All is ready to greet you. Rejoice ! Those who 
wished to eat you cannot even snarl now ! " 

His entry was splendid. All Moscow came out- 
of-doors to salute him. He could proceed only at a 
walk, and the crowd had to be forcibly divided to 

27 



(^elebrate^ Crimes of tbe IRusslan Court 

let him enter the St. Michael the Archangel Church, 
where he went to pray at Ivan the Great's tomb. 
He wept as he kissed the marble, and said, in a high 
voice : 

" Oh, my father, thy orphan reigns, owing all to thy 
prayers." 

At these words, everybody shouted: 

" All hail, our Czar Dmitri ! This is the son of 
Ivan the Terrible ! " 

Eleven months after, while three thousand bells rang 
the tocsin, and by the light of burning houses, with 
guns roaring and the furious rabble yelling, a defaced 
and broken-limbed corpse was dragged through the 
streets ; the forehead had been split, the breast opened, 
and the arms hacked. This carcass was carved upon 
a hundred tables, so that everybody could see the 
dismemberment. Then all that could struck the gob- 
bets with a whip or a stone, outraging what was the 
sum. of outrages. This clot was the lately bold and 
hardy young man who had acquired the throne of 
Ivan the Great. 

For three days the tatters of humanity remained 
exposed on the market-place. On the third night, 
it was perceived, with terror, that a blue flame flick- 
ered above the wreck. When approached, the flame 
receded or floated off, to reappear when it was un- 
disturbed. This phenomenon, common to putrefac- 
tion, struck the people with deep horror. A merchant 
begged the leave to bury the body outside the town, 

28 



Zbc IRomance of tbe ffalse Bemetrtus 

in the Serpukof Cemetery. But, as if all the prodigies 
were bound to follow this poor mutilation, a storm 
burst over the procession, and, as it got out of the 
Rulekho Gate, tore the roof off a tower and with the 
rubbish blocked the way. 

That was not all. Even the holy earth would not 
receive the wretch for repose. Although nothing but 
two guileless birds, like doves, had been remarked 
about the grave, and though such supernaturally sweet 
music as might be the angels' was heard on the evening 
of the interment, the pit was found open in the morn- 
ing, trampled about and empty; on the soil lay the 
remains at the farther end from the chapel. 

Then a cry of " Magic ! " arose from the multitude, 
and it was resolved to be rid of this burden, which 
was, according to popular belief, a vampire's body. 

An enormous pile of wood was gathered, and on it 
the ghastly load was placed; fire being applied, the 
whole was reduced to ashes. These ashes were col- 
lected with as much care as done in antiquity, when 
pious solicitude reserved the cinders for the household 
urn, or the columbarium of ancestors. But these 
ashes were scrupulously collected for another end. 

A cannon, loaded with the ashes, was drawn from the 
city by the same gateway as the false Demetrius had 
entered in triumph. The muzzle was pointed toward 
Poland, as thence had come this cursed impostor. The 
match was applied, and the dust of the man, surely 
worthy of the station he coveted, was blown to the 

29 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

winds ! But out of this dust sprang up five or six other 
Demetriuses, and fifteen years of civil war. During 
this period, — the shame of the Russian nobiHty, 
whether old or new, — they, the warriors and the 
most brilliant of the clergy, in the abyss of mud and 
blood separating the Rurik dynasty from the Romanoff, 
all aspired for the throne, — ten or twelve touched 
it, and three or four dyed it with their gore. I have 
met many a Russ who believed that all the Demetriuses 
were false except the first one, whom they cherish as 
*' The Little Dmitri of Uglitch." 



30 



CHAPTER III. 

THE ROMANCE OF PETER THE GREAT 
(1689- 1725) 

As soon as I could start sightseeing in St. Peters- 
burg, I took a carriage and was driven to the sites 
of three visits I had long planned: the oldest church 
in the capital, the Little House of Peter the Great, 
and the Fortress. They are all in the Old Town, on 
the Neva's right bank, — the old church to the right of 
the seeker, Peter's first house to the front, and the 
Citadel to the left. The religious building has no 
artistic value; but there the first mass was said, and 
the first Te Deum in honour of Czar Peter. 

The Little House was the first structure erected by 
the Neva, and the imperial Jack-of-all-trades was com- 
pelled to do this with his own hands. It is a miniature 
Dutch cot, made of wood, but painted red, and false 
layer-lines painted in black to lead the whole to be 
taken for brick. One can see that the aristocratic 
carpenter took lessons at Saardam. To preserve the 
historic edifice as long as possible, it has been boxed 
up in wood and glass, so that the well-covered, thickly 
painted hut defies sun, wind, and rain. 

31 



Celebratet) Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

There is something deeply affecting in the Russians' 
fashion of preserving every token that may be trans- 
mitted to posterity as some proof of the genius of 
the founder of their empire. There is a great future 
for those who cherish the past. 

An enclosure surrounds the coffer of the First 
House. Besides the hedge, all is shaded by rows of 
magnificent linden-trees, then in blossom. In their 
boughs hummed myriads of bees. They hurried over 
their spoil ; knowing that their work-hours are limited 
and that flowers come late and winter early. Under 
the buzzing and in the shade slumbered the guardians, 
three lowly fellows sleeping with the calm and care- 
less thoroughness of men who have full faith in 
Heaven to provide. 

I sat on a bench in this little garden. Thoughts ought 
to abound on a seat beneath trees perhaps planted by 
the great Civilizer when he commenced the city oppo- 
site. City and trees have generously thriven. The 
bees still come to harvest on the flowers; ships as 
numerous sail about here to load up with sweets of 
commerce in this haven. 

And Peter's spirit hovers over all. 

It is alarming to think what Russia would be if his 
successors had shared the progressive ideas of that 
genius, a man who built — to endure — towns, forts, 
ports, fleets, laws, armies, foundries, factories, roads, 
churches, and a religion, — not to mention his having 
to destroy sometimes, which gave him more trouble 

32 



ZDc IRomance of peter tbe Great 

than to construct. In my pondering hours I resolved 
to form an idea of this great man. 

Peter I. was bom at Moscow in 1672. 

His father was that Czar of Muscovy, Alexis 
Michaelowitch, who in his second nuptials married a 
Nariskine. The Nariskines, like the Rohans of 
France, did not wish to be princes or dukes; they 
wished to be the Nariskines. But they emblazoned 
the Russian eagle on their coat of arms. A romantic 
legend — I am not going to say it is unfounded, though 
I no more answer for romance than I do for history 
— runs about this Nariskine lady and how she came 
to the imperial court. 

During the rising of the militia, called the Strelitz 
Home-guard, and its extermination, of which I shall 
speak at length as connected with Peter, a boyard or 
nobleman, Matheof, was passing through the little 
hamlet of Kirkino, in the Riazon Government, not far 
from Mikackof ; in this neighbourhood were harboured 
a number of those land-poor nobles called Odnovor- 
tzki, meaning " With Nothing but a House." On a 
house-step, a very pretty maid of twelve or so was 
weeping her heart out. While the men were changing 
his horses, the noble inquired what was the cause of 
such grief. He was told that the only serf belonging 
to her, and who was her maid-of-all-work as well as 
tutoress, had hanged herself. Hence the tears, which 
were not idle, as the noble questioned about her. The 
young orphan was of a good family of the Crimea; 

33 



Celebrated Crimes ot the IRusBtan Court 

he took her with him, adopted her as his daughter, and 
presented her at court. After Czar Alexis became a 
widower, he noticed the young lady, courted her, and 
made her his wife. 

Is the tradition founded? I have already said that 
I will not warrant it; but to this day the story is 
current in Nathalia Kyrile's natal village : " If a silly 
woman had not hanged herself in Kirkino, there would 
have been no Peter the Great." 

Indeed, Nathalia had only one son, Peter. Michael 
had by the prior marriage two sons and a daughter. 
Feodor died in his twenty-third year; Ivan tempo- 
rarily shared the throne with Peter. Their dual 
throne is shown : it was founded and chased in Ham- 
burg in massy silver; the seat is parted off into two 
for the Emperors ; in the back is an opening covered 
with a golden cloth; they say that another seat was 
there hidden for their sister, Sophia, who, reigning in 
their names, dictated their replies or orders they were 
supposed, though too young, to originate. Thrones 
can tell tales, too. 

But the regent sought to clear her path to the throne, 
whether triple or only double, and Peter's mother 
saw meet to take him out of the reach of the menace. 
It was not mere thunder, for the usurper sent the 
Strelitz soldiery after the couple. The woman might 
expect at the least immurement in a convent, and for 
her boy a closer imprisonment, with death a welcome 
release. Pursued on the highway, she took shelter 

34 




CZAR ALEXIS. 



Ube IRomance ot peter tbe Great 

in the Trinity Church, and hid Peter under the cloth 
of an altar. The sanctity of the church would not 
have protected the two from the ruffians' fury, had not 
a troop of gentlemen rode into the aisle and dispersed 
the scoundrels, who fled. Peter remembered that day of 
fright, and the Strelitz remembered it as well, that 
day when he slew them by scores and with his own 
hand cut off a hundred of their heads. It was paying 
dearly for a scare to a boy and a woman. The Troitza 
(Trinity) has never lacked for gifts to show the piety 
and gratitude of the sovereigns. But, in one case, 
the mutilated tomb, — evidence of a very unholy re- 
venge, — it shows a rarity ; but this desecration will 
be treated as it deserves farther on, when I come 
to the Lapukine conspiracy against Peter. 

Following in the august footsteps, I visited Kolomen- 
skoe, a summer-seat preserving memories of Peter's 
youth. It holds the falconry where he fed the hawks 
with his own hands, and four oaks were standing as 
the academy where he studied under the Deacon 
Zotof. 

At Ismailof he found the little shallop, built by a 
Dutchman, Brandt, one of a party of foreign me- 
chanics brought into the country by Alexis, with some 
foresight of Russia becoming a maritime nation. 
" Great wits jump," and the son had traces of the sire's 
mode of thinking about amelioration. The elder de- 
votes two articles in his Code to the necessity to 
dissever the serf from the slave. He forbids the bond- 

35 



(Ielel)ratc^ Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

man being disposed of separately from the ground he 
was born upon. The penalty is the vague but terri- 
fying " Or it shall be done with you what the Czar 
orders ! " But the abuses flourished, for Peter, in 
1 719, declares by edict that landed proprietors must 
stop vexing their serfs, and that the local authorities 
are to seize them and send them to the capital to 
be tried by the Senate, while the Czar reserves to 
himself the liberty to take " the needful measures." 
A year or two later, Peter orders the Senate to stop 
the inhuman traffic of selling families in '' broken lots," 
that is, the father parted from the children and the 
married couple from each other. Later ukases compel 
the landlords to deliver certificates of marriage to the 
parties contracting, which would show the union was 
willing and not forced; the penalties are most severe. 

Talking of the first skiff Peter saw and which en- 
chanted him, another identified with him was seen on 
Lake Kletchino, on the Trubege River. The story runs 
that this village was built just like a village lost to 
the enemy by Vladimirowitch, and similarly con- 
structed, as well as the river renamed the Trubege. 
This lake has the singular property of sheltering land- 
locked herrings. Of all the first Russian fleet which 
Peter had constructed on this lake, nought remains 
but the wherry-boat used by him to go from hull to 
hull. This fleet dated from 1691. 

Eager to learn practical matters of navigation, for 
which the incident of the boat and such wonders of 

36 



Zhc IRomance ot peter tbe Great 

the art as had penetrated this great Unknown Land 
had stimulated him, Peter repaid those grand tours 
of princes of the West by a prolonged stay in Holland 
and elsewhere. Nothing is more singular or romantic 
than his working as a 'prentice shipwright in the 
Netherlands. He returned to suppress the Strelitz, as 
elsewhere related. He began to see he had a kingdom 
to work for, if never to be idled in. But what is a 
country without a capital? Ivan IV., the Great, mar- 
ried the daughter of the Greek Emperor, and chose 
for arms the double-headed eagle — looking east and 
west. The symbolism of the eye upon Asia and 
Europe was clear. But for the eagle to look out 
upon Europe through its Chinese Wall of barbarism, 
a peep-hole was needed. Pushkine, the poet, or it may 
have been Peter himself, called the capital-to-be in 
the frontier " the window opening on Europe." 

St. Petersburg was not even thought of. Its site 
was a swamp commanded by a Swedish fort, Nien- 
shantz. In 1703 Peter took this fort, and began in 
a fortnight the founding of the second great city of 
the empire, — the old one being Moscow, the Great 
Village, — but destined to be its first. 

On Pentecost day. May 27, 1703, it was christened 
St. Petersburg, in honour of the Czar's patron saint. 

Among Peter's city buildings of importance, let us 
glance at Cronstadt, first styled " Crownstadt," which 
was built in 17 10, and is the seat of the Russian 
Admiralty. It might have been little under the Peters, 

37 



Celebtate& Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

but in our times it is simply impregnable. Admiral 
Napier, in the Crimean War, saluted it, and held off. 
It is the northern Gibraltar. Peter had reason to 
know something of this dangerous channel, when the 
winds blow on the Baltic and snow-squalls baffle the 
finest navigator. 

Peter was learning the ship-building art at Saardam, 
when he went aboard a British ship touching there on 
the way to London. It pleased him so by its trim- 
ness, as compared with the Dutch craft, that he was 
struck with the whim to go to the Thames on board. 
He was clad like any seaman, and embarked incognito. 
He expected to learn the navigation of a bark after 
learning its construction. Providence served him to 
the full. A storm burst upon them to which that 
assailing Julius Caesar was a zephyr. It lasted three 
days. The skipper, his mates, and the crew were at 
their wits' ends, when, at almost the last moment, a 
volunteer seized the tiller and ordered a manoeuvre, 
saving the ship. 

It was a Frenchman named Villebois, a Breton 
nobleman of no fortune, who sought ^' an honest liv- 
ing " in smuggling. Mixed up with the revenue 
of^cers on the French coast, where two or three shots 
were exchanged and a couple of the " preventives " 
killed, Villebois passed over into England, where he 
found a berth as warrant ofificer, upon letters of credit 
he carried. But Peter saw him in action, which was 
worth all the letters ever penned, as to seamanship. 

38 



Ube IRomance ot peter tbe Great 

He perceived in the volunteer one of those ready men 
of head and hand wanted by founders and reformers 
of empires. The danger over, he went to him and 
shook hands. This famiHarity from a sailor-looking 
fellow wounded the petty noble's pride. He wanted 
to know who was the tar so fast in making acquaint- 
ances. The Russ replied that he was just the Czar 
of his country. Another would have treated this as 
a hoax, but Villebois had a keen eye, recognized the 
lion in the sea-bear's skin, and bowed to the sovereign 
majesty without hesitation or discussion, like a man 
who knows his superior and glorifies him wherever he 
meets him. The Czar appointed him an officer in his 
navy and his aid-de-camp. 

Our Breton had all the faults and virtues of his 
fellow countrymen, — he was a good officer, brave 
to ferocity, obstinate to wilfulness ; and, fond of drink- 
ing, if he did not drink himself under the table, he 
was apt for any excess. This was so like the Czar 
Peter that he fairly appreciated Villebois as a boon 
companion. 

In his mad moods Villebois lost all mastery ; he had 
killed three men in such outbreaks. But this was also 
one of the crimes Peter did not regard as unpar- 
donable; he would overlook that. 

Luckily for Villebois, his mania was not always 
homicidal. One day, when the ruler was at Strelna 
Castle, in St. Petersburg Bay, he sent the French- 
man with a message to the Empress Catherine, then 

39 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

at Cronstadt. It was the dead of winter, freezing 
away below zero; the gulf itself was frozen over, 
Villebois travelled on a sledge, and defied the cold 
with heavy furs and a bottle of grog. On arriving at 
Cronstadt the bottle was empty; this was sobriety 
for Villebois, so that he appeared quite steady to the 
guard's officers, to whom he was obliged to present 
himself before he might have audience with the Em- 
press. Unfortunately, the lady was not in her apart- 
ments, and, rather than annoy her by a search, the 
officer was begged to wait in the anteroom till she 
arrived. But the heat of the palace, — for Russian 
rooms are supernally heated in cold weather, — added 
to the drowsiness from the liquor and the cold, en- 
dured in a mass of furs, caused him to seek repose. 
In the anteroom, all the pages and guards, knowing 
him as the Czar's own man, paid him no attention. 
After awhile, rambling as the drunken do, he stole 
into the inner rooms, and, as chance would have it, 
blundered into the imperial bedroom, where, all his 
ideas now centred on sleeping, he incontinently dove 
into the luxurious couch, enveloped himself in the 
embroidered satin coverlet, and, in furred boots and 
all but his helmet, dozed, snored, and surrendered to 
Morpheus. 

In the interval, hearing that a special courier from 
her husband had arrived, the Empress dropped the 
affair in hand, and hastened to the reception-room to 

give him audience. But, unaccountably, the gentle- 

40 



Ube IRomance of peter tbe Great 

man had disappeared. While all were in trepidation 
at the Emperor's messenger having, apparently, fallen 
down a trap, — as there are, or were, such things in 
the palace, — a wild scream, totally foreign to all well- 
conducted royal residences, rent the warm and per- 
fumed air. One of the Empress's ladies, without 
knowing of the missing envoy, had stepped into her 
mistress's sleeping-room. She had at once perceived 
disarray, and, casting her alarmed eyes on the bed, 
descried further disorder upon the badly ploughed-up 
drapery. In fact, the intoxicated captain had thrown 
himself on the couch as to lay his head where feet 
usually are placed. On the pillow, therefore, reposed 
a pair of the enormous furred boots used in Russian 
winter travelling, while, at the farther extremity, only 
half-enveloped in the damask and linen, was a flushed 
and shaggy head, with moustache at odds as to its 
ends' inclinations, the eyes closed, but the mouth amply 
open, exhaling a most stentorian and stertorous sound. 
Considering that the mere intrusion of a man into a 
royal bedchamber carries the death penalty with it, 
the horror of the attendant may be imagined. The 
Empress Anna herself, though pledged not to allow 
an execution in her realm, had consented to a wretch 
being tortured so that he could not survive, because 
he had similarly been caught in her private suite. 
Villebois was certainly doomed, especially as Peter, to 
say nothing of Catherine, had no qualms about a head 
or two being taken off. 

41 



(Ielel)rate& Crtmes ot tbe 1Ru60tan Court 

Villebois arrested, and making no resistance for 
reasons not alien to the effect of Dantzic brandy, 
fatigue from sleighing and heated air, was " laid in 
lavender " — as the cant expression goes. A rider 
was sent immediately to the Czar, to relate the awful 
indignity with as much delicacy as possible. Yet he 
listened to the account from one end to the other 
without any mark of anger escaping him. 

"Well, what have you done with him?" he in- 
quired, when the tale was terminated. 

'' Pinioned him in case he sobers and wakes wroth, 
and lodged him in the guardhouse." 

" What has he done since locked up ? " 

" Resumed sleeping." 

" By that I recognize my old Villebois ! " chuckled 
Peter. " I wager that, when he wakes up, he will 
not know what happened in his stupor. In fact, that 
stuff they concoct at Dantzic has Indian hemp in it, 
or I am no judge of liquor." Then to the high aston- 
ishment of the messenger, who was a courtier who 
thought a queen's privacy inviolable and a pillow of 
an imperial bed like an altar-cloth, he continued, pac- 
ing the room more like an embarrassed man than a 
maddened one : " I suppose we must make an example 
of him, though the old toper is innocent, having no 
knowledge of what he did. The Czarina will be 
furious unless he is reprimanded. Make him row in 
the galleys, in chains, for a couple of years." 

This was done, and Villebois marched off to be 

42 



Ube IRomance of peter tbe (Breat 

ironed and shipped between the masts. But he had 
not been there six months before Peter, unable to 
drink without him, called him back, reestablished him 
in his posts, and entreating the Czarina to overlook 
the insult, treated him with the former trust. 

In 1692, while Peter was brooding over conquest, 
from looking out of his " window " upon Europe, a 
gentleman arrived from the Neva region. It was one 
Patkul, from Livonia. The greater part of Livonia, 
with Esthonia, had been ceded by Poland to King 
Charles XII., of Sweden, with a stipulation for re- 
tention of the privileges of the inhabitants, to which 
the new master paid no heed. Not only that, but when 
this John Reginald Patkul, with six other deputies, pre- 
sented a firm, though respectful, petition, he was con- 
demned to die, while his supporters were clapped into 
prison. Not waiting for the performance of the sen- 
tence, Patkul fled. Profiting by Augustus of Saxony 
being appointed King of Poland, he appealed to him, 
reminding him that he had pledged himself, on being 
so elevated, to restore lost provinces to Poland. Re- 
pulsed, he came to Moscow. He reminded Czar Peter 
that Ingria and Caralie had once belonged to Russia, 
and that the Swedes had only taken them over during 
the strife about the false Demetrius. Peter had not 
forgotten this. Patkul was charged to be the inter- 
mediary between the Russians and the Polanders. 
For greater surety, they induced King Frederick IV. 
of Denmark to join. Nothing was feared in case of 

43 



Celebrated Cttmes of tbe IRusslan Court 

war, as Charles XII. of Sweden was a youth of eight- 
een with no military reputation. 

Patkul was appointed major-general and sent to 
besiege Riga. Peter despatched sixty thousand men 
toward him, some twelve thousand irregulars, by the 
way, and himself laid siege to Narva, choosing it as 
it had a port on the Baltic. Frederick, the last to 
move, mustered his army to join his allies. 

But the boy Charles did not give him time to do 
so; he entered Denmark, and in five weeks rendered 
Frederick hors de combat. He also sent such a help to 
Riga as raised the siege. He then marched in person 
upon Narva. Peter was at Novgorod; and Charles, 
beating a Russian outlying force north of Revel, treated 
the bulk of the army to the same fate. 

Peter was aroused by this thunderbolt. It was 
hard to believe. Charles, with less than ten thousand 
men, and only ten guns, had trounced sixty thousand 
men, having upwards of a hundred and fifty cannon. 
And the handful had not only beaten the mass, but, 
after killing seven thousand Russians, they had made 
twenty-five thousand prisoners. This terrible disaster 
vibrated among all classes in Russia, — clergy, nobles, 
and people. 

Peter was not downhearted, and even appeared in- 
sensible to it. 

" I well know," said he, " that we are but scholars 
to the Swedes; but from being beaten by them we 
shall learn how to be masters in our turn." 

44 




CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN 



Ube IRomance of peter tbe Great 

The first thing he busied himself about was the 
artillery. Men can be found anywhere; great guns 
are scarce. Hastening to Moscow, he took the bells 
from monasteries and churches from all corners, and 
cast mortars, guns, field-pieces of large calibre, and 
howitzers, all of which were sent to Pleskof. Then 
he negotiated with the King of Denmark, who sold 
him three foot and three cavalry regiments. Return- 
ing to Moscow, he sent Repnine with reinforcements 
to Riga ; enrolled, through Patkul, all sorts of swords- 
men; built a flotilla on Lake Paypus, to be on the 
road to Narva, and keep it open; built another on 
Lake Ladoga, to open the way to Noteburg (after- 
ward Schlusselburg) ; trained the sailors himself; 
came nigh to being wrecked on the lake, where storms 
rage like those at sea; but, like Caesar, destined for a 
great enterprise, he braved them and rode through. 

While keeping sight of Charles, not yet defined as 
his due antagonist, and letting him devastate Poland 
and beat Augustus, he regulated legal forms, instituted 
colleges, founded factories, and brought in vineyard- 
men from Spain, builders from Holland, and foundry- 
men from France, — artisans from everywhere. This 
did not hinder him from joining by canal the Black 
and the Caspian Sea, which would by and by con- 
nect with the Baltic likewise ; to dig the canal running 
from the Don to the Volga, and that from the Don 
to the Dwina, which should lead into the Baltic at 
Riga. True, Riga was not his yet, but it would be 

45 



Celebrated Ctime5 of tbe IRussian Court 

after he had drubbed the Swedish. Meanwhile, the 
Swedes were drubbing him; but he would have the 
return game. In fact, each defeat was a lesson. After 
a course of these war-schoolings, his general beat the 
Swedes and proved that Charles was not the Invincible. 
In 1703 other Russian successes followed. It was at 
Mariendorf, fallen into his general's hands, that the 
woman to be his queen and the first Catherine was 
made slave to General Menschikof, and thence passed 
into his household, as we shall relate in another 
chapter. 

And St. Petersburg was to be piled up. At the 
very time when he was believed to be engrossed at 
Moscow with a multiplicity of projects, he suddenly 
appeared on an islet of the Neva, low, marshy, de- 
serted, unhealthy, where he stamped in the mud and 
said : 

" Here shall be St. Peter's city." 

Why there? Whence was this preference for a 
corrupted and ungrateful soil, under a wild climate, 
where winter reigns eight parts of the year; where 
the uneven, shallow, sandy, ice-fretted river allows no 
war-vessels to reach the open sea unless towed or 
impelled by machinery? Did he not know that fresh 
water rots ship timber? Had he not seen that lonely 
tree, which bore the marks of the freshets and low 
tides, the differing inundations? 

Was it an autocrat's caprice or a vanquisher's folly ? 
It was neither. A man like Peter has no room for 

46 



Ube IRomance ot IPeter tbe (3reat 

fancies. His choice was the result of the most logical 
calculation — the deepest combination. 

Obstacles of nature were but difficulties of detail. 

Was it not known that the three most important 
parts of the world converge on the North Pole, — Asia, 
Europe, and America? Russia, placed at the junction 
of their meridians, is of all these natures. The Rus- 
sian Empire, driven back to the globe's extremity, 
found itself joined by Bering's Strait to America; 
by the Caspian Sea with Asia; and with Europe by 
the Euxine and the Baltic. 

By conquest on land and sea, he was going to let 
his realm enjoy the three worlds; his eagle eye saw 
at this point in the Neva's marshes, at the pocket of 
the Gulf of Finland, the reunion of the grand whole. 

So he would bring to this centre treasures, mer- 
chandise, government, peers, soldiers, traders, the 
people. The peers would cause trade; the building 
of his palaces would set the example for their resi- 
dences; ships would bring seamen and goods; and 
wood should be floated by the canals and sea to build 
and for fuel. 

He well knew it would be a long and wearying con- 
flict with the elements. He would lose a hundred 
thousand men ; but what did he care — had he not 
eighteen millions while he planned? And might he 
not leave thirty millions when he died? And, a 
hundred years after, would not his successors reign 
over sixty millions? 

47 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

The tree of evil augury, because it marked the past, 

— this Nilometer prophesying the future by the past, 

— the importunate witness that said that a west wind 
driving the waters before it would swamp St. Peters- 
burg in a day, — that was felled. Its going let them 
forget a danger which nothing recalled. A forgotten 
danger does not exist! 

On the 1 6th of May, 1705, the Czar Peter laid 
the foundation-stone of the fort around which was 
to accrue the city. Leaving it to grow, it was time 
he should play the military, not the civil, engineer. 

Narva was besieged, but the Swedish bastions broke 
all the Russian efforts; then Peter carried them suc- 
cessively, sword in hand. Narva was taken; it was 
undergoing the standard fate of taken towns, when 
Peter flung himself among the pillagers, his own 
soldiers. 

" Butchers and plunderers ! " he reproached, and cut 
down the foremost. In the calm he established, Count 
Horn was brought before him. He was the com- 
mandant who had held out to the last. Peter let 
his anger blaze up again, and struck him in the face 
with his sword-pommel. 

" You are the cause of this misery ! " he said. 
" Ought you not to have surrendered, knowing that 
you could not be relieved?" He showed him his 
streaming blade. " Thanks to Heaven, this blood is 
not Swedish, but Russian, and it has saved the in- 



48 



Ubc IRomance ot ipeter tbe Great 

habitants of this hapless city! Your obstinacy sacri- 
ficed them ! " 

To his troops he said : " We have managed to beat 
the Swedes two to one! Let us hope that, one day, 
they will teach us how to beat them one to one! " 

Offering peace to Charles, the reply was : " When 
we are at Moscow together ! " 

" Oho ! " cried Peter, " my brother Charles wishes 
to pose as Alexander; he will not find a Darius in 
me!" 

Charles would not believe in the victory. 

" My riding-whip will suffice to lash not only this 
mongrel Muscovite from Moscow, but the entire world 
as well!" 

Finally he deigned to march in person against this 
dust which his breath had raised in agitation. 

At Grodno a success seemed to prove him right; 
but at the Bibitch crossing a bloody and weighty strug- 
gle took place; lastly, within Old Russian soil, near 
Mohilef, Galitzin repulsed his vanguard, which never 
before had flinched. This unexpected resistance irri- 
tated this new " Charles the Rash " ; he fell upon the 
Russian army with only six horse regiments and four 
thousand foot. The Muscovites were retiring, and 
he chased them into sunken roads; a troop of Kal- 
mucks pestered him, their lances all but reaching him. 
Fighting beside him, two aids fell; his charger bent 
under five wounds and collapsed; a squire leading up 
a relay was killed with it. Surrounded by only a 

49 



Celebrateb Crtmes ot tbe IRussian Coutt 

few officers, Charles fought on foot. After having 
killed twelve men with his own hand, his support was 
reduced to five men, who were quickly cut down one 
after the other. 

He was about to be buried under the dead, when, 
all at once, a captain with his company cut through 
the Tartars and freed the king, who mounted a horse 
and fell upon the Kalmucks, whom he pursued for 
four miles, harassed as he was. His habitual good 
luck had not abandoned him; amid the terrible melee 
he had not received a scratch; but the Czar was 
right in saying: " Charles is teaching us how to wage 
war." 

Still the fright was sharp in Moscow. Charles had 
gained Smolensko, only two hundred miles away. But 
there madness seized the vanquisher. To the army's 
high astonishment, he quitted the Moscow road, and 
plunged into the south with fifteen days' rations. He 
ordered General Loewenhaupt to join his twenty 
thousand men with fifteen thousand Swedes, amply 
provisioned. He could conquer the world with an 
army double the great Alexander's. Were not the 
Swedes the Macedonians of the century ? 

He meant to take the Ukraine where Mazeppa 
awaited him; then he would return to sleep in Mos- 
cow. What blindness smote him? Was it Patkul's 
phantom? For he had had that patriot executed and 
quartered, against all justice, and from that date he 
no longer stood in the Almighty Hand. 

50 



Ubc IRomance ot peter tbe Great 

Yet his fortune threw a beam on him, at the Besua, 
an affluent of the Dnieper. The King of Sweden had 
arrived there, exhausted with weariness and hunger. 
But a corps of eight hundred Muscovites were watch- 
ing from the other bank, — they would rest by crush- 
ing them. So rugged were the banks that the Swedes 
had to swing themselves down by ropes; they swam 
the current and repulsed the enemy, who left them the 
way. Charles was a lost man; if vanquished, he 
would have retreated and avoided Pultawa which 
awaited him. 

Under Moscow's walls, Peter saw with glee mingled 
with amaze this foe losing himself in the low country, 
astray in the woods, leaving men and horses, while 
Loewenhaupt's contingent would not be able to over- 
take him. The latter had with him a supply-train of 
eight thousand carts, laden with provisions, ammu- 
nition, and money raised in Lithuania, together with 
cannon. He was forty or fifty miles within the 
Ukraine road when, where the Proina and the Sossa 
join to rush into the Dnieper, near Tcherikof, the Czar 
appeared with forty thousand men. Instead of en- 
trenching and waiting for the Russians, Loewenhaupt 
marched his sixteen thousand toward them. Were 
they not accustomed to fight live to one? The onset 
was terrific; fifteen hundred Muscovites fell, never to 
rise again. 

Peter saw confusion spread in his ranks; he and 
Russia were lost if Loewenhaupt joined Charles with 

SI 



Celebtateb (Trtmes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

a victorious army. Running to the rear-guard and 
forming a line, Cossacks and Kalmucks, he called 
out: 

" Kill any one who flees, and me — if I am such a 
coward ! " 

Returning to the front, he took the command, rallied 
them, and offered battle to the convoy train. But 
Loewenhaupt had orders to join his chief, and not to 
fight. He bore the honours so far, hence he refused 
to combat, and resumed the route. It was Peter's 
turn to be the aggressor. He caught up with the 
Swedes in a day while they were skirting a morass. 
He attacked them on all sides. They faced, also, in 
all directions, and fought for three hours; they lost 
two thousand men to the Muscovites' five. Neither 
drew back a foot, but the indecisive result was a vic- 
tory to Peter. 

At four o'clock, as fatigue was calling a halt. Gen- 
eral Baico came up with six thousand men for the 
Czar. Putting himself at the head of the fresh troops, 
Peter hurled them upon the Swedes, and the action 
went on into night. But numbers won. The Swedish 
were thrown back, broken, among their wagons. 
There they rallied and stood, nine thousand available, 
almost. Seven thousand had been slain or wounded 
during the three onslaughts. The remnant kept up 
the battle front. Peter also passed the night under 
arms. Officers and men, under penalty of the former 
being broken and the latter being shot, were forbidden 

52 



Ube IRomance ot peter tbe Great 

to leave the camp to strip and rob the dead, as was 
their right. 

In the dark, Loewenhaupt spiked the guns he could 
not drag off, burnt the camp furniture, and retired 
to a height. Peter ran in to put out the fire in time 
and save four thousand carts. He offered the Swedes 
a fifth encounter and an honourable capitulation. The 
other refused the latter and accepted the fight. The 
battle went on all day. Loewenhaupt, at night, passed 
over the Sossa with four thousand men left with 
him; he had lost twelve thousand in five times thrust- 
ing off forty thousand, having been repulsed but not 
overthrown — crushed but not beaten. This resist- 
ance, though in enemies, created admiration with 
despair in Peter. He had lost ten thousand in the 
five collisions, and the foe had slipped through his 
hands. But the outcome was two undecided days and 
three victories. 

Loewenhaupt regained the king with four thousand 
men, but did not bring the reinforcements, the pro- 
visions, or the munitions to those who lacked them all. 

No more communications with Poland; all around 
a hostile country and an active enemy; finally the 
winter, — the frightful winter of 1709, to which only 
that of 18 12 can be likened. 

Charles lost two thousand men on the steppes, 
whence his cavalry limped forth without horses and 
the foot-soldiers without shoes. Part of the artillery 
was sunk in the bogs, — there were no horses to drag 

53 



Celebrateb Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

them out. In short, he had twenty-four thousand 
men left him, but dragged out and dying of want. 
But they were Swedes, and they recuperated when they 
heard the gun-fire. The lame and ailing stood up 
with the army; but, as fighting was renewed from 
February, by April the king could see but eighteen 
thousand of his braves. 

But they were nearing Pultawa. Charles bought 
of a Tartar khan some thousands of Wallachs, and, 
with his remaining Swedes, besieged this town. It 
contained stores of all kinds, and he was bound to 
take it. It was the more necessary as winter was due 
— an ally of Peter the Czar, who was coming up 
seventy thousand strong. 

Charles undertook the siege operations personally. 
During an exchange of musketry, a bullet — one of 
those paltry little lumps of lead which not only de- 
termine human life but imperil destinies — followed 
the line traced on high, and shattered the king's heel 
bone. This Achilles did not wince : he was of the 
school of the Greek philosopher who said : " Pain ! 
you are not an ill ! " 

He kept in the saddle six hours without anybody 
near him being aware he was stricken, so far from 
crying out was he. But a groom noticed, then, that 
his boot was overflowing with blood. He was made 
to dismount and the boot was cut ofif, when it was 
decided to cut off the leg. 

To dismember a monarch like Charles was tanta- 

54 



Ubc IRomance ot peter tbe Great 

mount to striking off his head. A surgeon had the 
boldness to declare against amputation and take the 
responsibility of another operation, which was to make 
deep gashes so as to extract all the flinders of bone. 
Charles held the limb under the knife. The king gave 
an order for an assault on the morrow, but, at the 
time, a spy reported that the Czar was in sight. 

" Very well ! " said Charles, without a tremor. " We 
shall beat the Czar, and, after that, take Pultawa." 

Fatigued with the operation, he slept soundly till 
daybreak. It was the 8th of July, 1709. 

The sun was rising to illumine a famous battle-field, 
where Charles, with nine years of victories, was pitted 
against Peter, with twelve years of toil, cares, and 
struggles. 

If Charles were slain, it would be but one man the 
less. If Peter, civilization would recede and an empire 
crumble. 

A little out of Pultawa, you will see a hillock under 
thirty feet high; it is the tumulus of the Swedish 
army — in which is buried Charles's glory. On this 
very spot, the battle-ground, Peter, covered with dust 
and blood, but with the halo of glory around his 
brow, was enabled to hail his victorious army. 

" I salute ye, soldiers ! " he said ; " the dearest sons 
of my heart! You whom I moulded with the sweat 
of my brow, you who are the sinews of the country, 
and as indispensable to it as the body to the soul 
which animates it! " 

55 



Celebratet) Crimes of tbe IRusslan (Toutt 

Leaving Charles in his senseless rage, he carried the 
victory of Pultawa into Poland, Prussia, and Den- 
mark, making Stanislaus descend from the throne, and 
ceding Poland to Augustus of Saxony. 

Charles might as well have been buried in his sol- 
diers' sepulchre. He never recovered from Pultawa. 

The political weakness of Sweden gave the victor 
a little respite. He might again quit home, and re- 
new acquaintance with Europe in art and graces, so 
bright to him on the previous occasion. He would 
take the Czarina Catherine with him, his good genius, 
as he called her. But she could hardly see France at 
her best, as etiquette opposed it. The little mon- 
arch Louis XV. could not receive the servant girl, 
become Empress, on a footing of equality. The Czar 
had an interview, of course. In his former visit he 
had commented on the other Great Monarch. 

" Louis XIV. is greater than I in many points. But 
I have done more than he, if only in reducing my 
clergy tO' peace and obedience; he lets his domineer 
over him." 

He alluded to his declaring, when the Patriarch 
Adrian died, that there should be no longer a spiritual 
chief as well as a temporal one in Russia. Parallel it 
with his remark at Westminster Hall, on counting the 
barristers. "Lawyers? so many? Well, I have a 
couple at home, and, when I return, I think I shall 
hang one of them ! " 

He had uttered, at Richelieu's tomb, the grandest 

5^ 



XTbe IRomancc ot peter tbe Great 

eulogy a prime minister ever drew from any sov- 
ereign : " Oh, I would have given thee, thou great 
man, half my kingdom to have thee manage the 
other!" 

Always in keeping with himself, he had refused the 
young king's hospitality, the palace prepared for him, 
the homage, the luxuries which he disdained. He took 
refuge in a small house, saying: 

" I am a soldier ; a hunk of bread and a pot of 
beer suit me. I prefer cosy rooms to grand apart- 
ments; I do not wish to strut about with pomp, or 
give anybody trouble." 

Then, prophet by sixty years ahead, he said, on quit- 
ting Versailles : 

'' I grieve for France and her little king, who, I see, 
will lose his kingdom by luxury and superfluities." 

News more dreadful than that which spoiled his 
first tour interrupted the second. Before, it was that 
the Strelitz and the Princess Sophia conspired against 
him; now, that his son, the Czarowitch Alexis, and 
his wife, the Czarina Eudoxie Feodorowna Lapukine, 
were conspiring. Peter had tried to have his marriage 
dissolved, but the jurists and the clergy could not see 
any way to do so. He sent his wife into a nunnery, 
where he compelled her to take the veil. But the 
Czarina Eudoxie was not so thickly veiled that she 
could not see, or so closely walled in that friends could 
not enter to see her. 

A gentleman in Rostof Province, of the name of 

57 



Celebrateb Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

Gleboff, had a brother, an archdeacon, exercising the 
entry to the religious house. He covered his brother's 
having a conference with the repudiated Empress. If 
there were any love in the matter at first, it rose or 
degenerated into political intrigue. The plot was to 
depose or assassinate Peter and set the heir Alexis 
on the throne. It was discovered. 

The Czarina was flogged with rods and shut up in 
Schlusselburg. Gleboff was impaled and set on a 
scaffold, of which the four corners were occupied by 
his brother, the priest, Abraham Lapukine, the Czar- 
ina's brother, and two nobles who had participated in 
the crime. 

Another Lapukine was lucky enough to get clear 
away, and, cloaking himself as a monk, he was hidden 
in Trinity Church, where he died, and even had a 
monument erected to him. They little knew Peter 
who thought that the dead themselves could be con- 
cealed from his wrath. Time came when he learned 
of this sequestration of an enemy. He demanded of 
the chief priest that the corpse should be disinterred 
and given up to his vengeance. But the high priest 
remonstrated, and the compromise was that Peter 
might decapitate the monument. So you will see, as 
I have, on the marble, at the height of a man's neck, 
the cut of the saw with which Peter decapitated in 
effigy the man who had eluded his ire. 

" When fire meets straw, it consumes it ; when it 
meets iron, the iron puts it out," said the Czar. 

S8 



XTbe IRomance of peter tbe Great 

Learning that, at night, Gleboff had survived the 
horrible agony some twelve hours, he v^ent in a car- 
riage to the spot. He went up to the lingering sufferer, 
from whom torture had not wrung a word, and ex- 
horted him at that moment to tell the truth. 

" Draw nigh that I may speak it, and to you alone,'* 
muttered Gleboff. 

Peter went nearer, and the man spat in his face. 

''Fool!" hissed he; "do you think that, having 
nothing to say when you promised me life in exchange 
for my confession, I am such a blockhead as to speak 
when all your power could not save my life?" 

The master retired, vanquished, with a raging heart. 

There was still the son, Alexis, the mother's ac- 
complice and an eternal plotter. Since long Peter 
had not regarded him as his heir, for he had, on ven- 
turing a battle on the Pruth, enjoined the Senate to 
choose the worthiest for his throne. The young prince 
was tried and condemned to death, July 6, 1718. The 
next day, the population stirred, and, amid calls in 
favour of Alexis, a deputation humbly implored the 
Czar to grant him mercy. 

" Well," returned Peter, " I grant him mercy ; go 
and announce the good tidings! " 

Then he called his doctor, while they were speeding 
to the prison. 

" Doctor, you know how nervous the Czarowitch 
is! As he does not expect mercy, this relief may 
cause a fata,I emotion. Go you and bleed him plenti- 

}9 



Celel)rate^ CrtmcB of tbe IRusstan Court 

fully ! At all four limbs ! " added Peter, with a voice 
through which pierced all the hatred held for the 
unfortunate prince, whom maternal advice had drawn 
into an impious and sacrilegious contest. 

Two hours afterward the Czarowitch was dead. 

Son or stranger, all ought to fall before this man 
of superhuman passions, if they dared to withstand 
him. 

Either the son lived and the work would fall, or 
the son dying, the work would gO' on. The work has 
gone on. The Russian Empire, springing shapeless 
from Peter the Great's hands, covers this day a third 
of the globe, and glorifies its founder in thirty tongues : 
while Alexis Petrowitch, lost in a corner of the Saints 
Peter and Paul Church, sleeps in six feet of earth. 

But the heart of Peter, as firm as Brutus's about 
a son's death, broke at the unfaithfulness of a woman. 

One day, he was told that she had deceived him — 
the Lithuanian peasant slave, Catherine, whom he had 
made his wife and his queen. She had sat, crowned 
and consecrated like to him, on the throne ensanguined 
by so many monstrous executions, and she should have 
trembled if she did not love. 

His rival was a favourite, the chamberlain, Moens 
de Lacroix. 

He would not believe this at the first, though the 
story came by his confidential man, Jagavschinski, 
known as " the Czar's Eye." The Emperor stooped 

to playing the spy himself, and became convinced. 

60 



XCbe IRomance ot peter tbe Great 

Early one morning, he entered the rooms of the Prince 
Repnine in the imperial palace, and waking him, but 
not letting him rise and dress, related what he had 
heard and personally learnt, and said : 

" I have resolved to have the Empress's head cut 
oflf." 

Repnine implored him not to do so, for the sake of 
his two daughters. 

" You would disgrace the Princesses Anna and 
Elizabeth; you would put their pedigree in doubt." 

" But methought I was master ! " sighed Peter. 

" So, do as you will! " rejoined the general. 

The Czar went off without a further word. 

Lacroix was arrested, as was also his sister, for 
having played the watchman for the guilty. During 
the trial, the monarch had fits of rage, like madness. 
One evening, returning from the fortress, where the 
examination was proceeding, he flew into the prin- 
cesses' apartments without any intimation, and walked 
up and down for a time, while they pretended to go 
on with their needlework; he was pale as death, and 
shivered all over spasmodically; he did not speak a 
word; but he fixed his eyes terribly, threateningly, 
and vengefully on the young ladies. They quitted the 
room, tremulous with fright. Their French teacher, 
a young woman, had crept underneath the table and 
held her breath, motionless. She saw him draw and 
dash back in its scabbard a hunting-knife; he stamped, 
struck things with his fist, smashed all the furniture 

6i 



Celebrated Crtmes ot tbe 1Ru06tan Court 

on which he could lay hand, and finally rushed forth, 
slamming the door so hard that he broke it. 

Lacroix was doomed to death; his sister to be 
knouted, a torture the Czar inflicted with his own 
hand. After that, she was sent into Siberia — the 
great unfilled pit for such offenders — and others. 

In November, 1724, Lacroix, after full confession, 
was pronounced guilty of treason, conspiracy, and 
concurrence in villainy, and it was settled that his 
head should be cut off. He marched to his fate like 
a martyr. He had kept a small bracelet in diamonds, 
given him by the faulty lady; he had slipped it into 
his garter when taken, and preserved it through his 
trial and march to the scaffold. There he gave it to 
the Lutheran pastor attending, with entreaty to return 
it to the Empress. 

Peter watched the execution from a palace window ; 
he ran out and, going up the planks, lifted the head 
by the hair and boxed the ears. 

Going back to the palace, he addressed Catherine, 
asking her ironically to come for " a drive in the car- 
riage." 

Though suspecting some horrible goal, she obeyed, 
not daring to refuse. In the open carriage he con- 
ducted her to the scaffold, where the head, set on a 
pike, had been stuck up so that the lady was made 
to brush the dripping with her dress; some drops of 
blood were smeared on it. But she did not flinch; 
her marble brow betrayed not the slightest emotion. 

62 



XTbe IRomance of peter tbe Great 

Thenceforward, all relations ceased between the im- 
perial couple. 

Peter never saw her again, save in public. He threw 
the will made in her favour into the fire, and, having 
sent one wife into the convent, he let it be supposed 
that the second would follow. 

His joyous spirit had sustained the worn-out frame, 
but the broken heart was the mainspring gone — it 
killed him. The English Doctor Atkins was asked, 
" Why do you not cure our master ? " and replied, 
" How heal a man who carries in him the Legion of 
Luxury? " 

Catherine had lost no time in being ungrateful, as 
she betrayed him four months after he had pub- 
lished her as Czarina and inheritress of the crown, — 
and he had crowned her, — an unheard-of event in 
Russia, where never had a woman been so honoured. 
He had praised her as " not merely a wife, but a 
friend ; not merely a woman on the hearth, but a man 
at the council-board ! " The natural return was such 
as a cynic might hope for and rely upon; as soon 
as she had all she might count upon, she would give 
nothing back. Besides, the Czar's death alone could 
raise her a step, — high as might be her throne, her 
tomb would be higher still. 

To this real crime, romance, if not history, adds a 
supposititious one. On the death of Peter, she and 
Menschikof Were accused of having poisoned him, — 
two for whom he had done more than all, except 

63 



(Ielebrate^ Grtmes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

Russia and her children. But it is divine justice that 
one who evades punishment for a real crime should 
be laden with the burden of a fictitious one. 

Peter's death came in his fifty-second year. From 
1722 he had been ill, but never admitted a pain until 
the mortal one struck him. He knew he must die, 
but would not let others suppose it possible. 

The Lacroix catastrophe gave the mercy-stroke. 
For three months he lay in anguish on the rack. His 
will righted him, like a ship returning to the even keel 
after being careened; like a pale captive, snapping 
his chain and bursting out of a dungeon, he sprang, 
though bowed, out of the sick-room. But where go, 
in the autumn, fatal in St. Petersburg to the strongest 
constitutions? Into the marsh-lands, where the canal 
was being cut to join the Asian waters with the Euro^ 
pean. The old warrior. Count Munich, was affrighted 
by this bent, suffering, and enfeebled ghost, aiming 
to make this fetid and muddy country wholesome and 
beneficial — the very kingdom of fever. 

But Peter said : " This canal will nourish St. Peters- 
burg and Cronstadt; it will furnish building material 
for them; it will bring them all our fabrications and 
products ; wiith Russian trade will prosper all the com- 
merce. My place is here ! '' 

The canal under way, he travelled to the salt-works, 
then in Finland, and in midwinter reached Lake 
Lachta, amid a fearful tempest, but he was saved; a 
cabin offered shelter and a stove its heat. He cast 

64 



Ube IRomance ot peter tbe Great 

a look on that body of water which he had subju- 
gated as he had the Steppes, the Turks, the Swedes, 
and the Danes, and he might smile at his triumph. 
But what did he see? A flatboat floundering in the 
quicksands, full of soldiers and seamen. Bewildered 
by fright, they would sink. Peter ran out to the shore 
edge and called out the movements they ought to make. 
But his voice was lost in the uproar of the gale and 
the men's clamour. Peter ordered help to be sent, but 
those he addressed wavered. Forgetting the danger 
to himself as an invalid, he jumped into a boat. As 
he could not row it, he leaped in and swam to the 
barge. Taking the helmsman's place, he steered them 
safely to the shore. 

But the fever gripped him that night and clenched 
its claws in his innermost vitals, so that he was 
carried, dying, back to St. Petersburg. He was never 
to rise from his death-bed. Yet he issued his final 
orders. Nay, he did rise once — for the Blessing of 
the Neva in mid- January, 1725, braving the bitter 
climate and his keen tortures. He who had slain 
superstition yielded to being pious ! On the 19th, over- 
come by the ineffectuality of the host of doctors from 
all parts, ashamed of himself, he ejaculated : 

"What a miserable animal is the man in me!" 
In another week he acknowledged himself van- 
quished; he paid his debts, released prisoners, and 
prayed : 



65 



Celebrated) Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

" I trust that God will show me some clemency for 
the good I have done my people! " 

He died at the end of the month, exhausted by 
excesses; he that had known how to bridle others 
could not draw the rein tightly for himself. 

But his memory abides. Counter to the habit of 
peoples, his have been grateful for the welfare he 
provided them with. 



66 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ROMANCE OF THE STRELITZ GUARD 
(1689- 1705) 

If there be a lesson for monarchs to derive from 
the behaviour of their household troops, it is that in 
leaning upon them they rely on a yielding reed. The 
story of the Praetorian Guards, the Mamelukes, and 
the Janizaries unite tO' tell them that. 

In 1 612, when the situation seemed desperate in 
Russia, three men arose to restore hope. They were 
Minine for the masses, Pojarski for the nobility, and 
Romanoff for the clergy. The last one was that Metro- 
politan, twice prisoner to the Poles, but ever uphold- 
ing his country in chains and facing death, so fully 
representing Russian nationality that all Russians ral- 
lied around him, and out of his family Russia chose 
her ruler. And yet this sovereign was of alien breed. 

Tradition will not allow that the Romanoff stem 
sprang from Russian soil. 

In 1350, an obscure Prussian settled on the Volga 
banks. His son married into the Schemeretef family, 
one of the most illustrious. Another was brother of 
the Empress Anastasia, mother of Feodor, last Czar 

67 



(^elel)rate^ Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

of the Rurik blood. Lastly, the only one escaping 
massacre and the family's exile, — hunted by Godun- 
off , who seemed to foresee his future, — a Romanoff 
turned monk, had issue, that Michael whom Russia 
made Czar in 1613. 

The house at Kostroma, where he learnt of his 
election, exists as an object of veneration to Russians, 
who proudly show it to foreigners. From the clouded 
stem has spread and struck root, during two hundred 
years, such a tree, that in sap and leaf it is thoroughly 
Russian. 

Michael Romanoff reigned from 1613 to 1645, ^"^ 
his son Alexis to 1676. 

He left by his first marriage two princes and six 
princesses; by a second, Peter (to be Peter I.) and the 
Princess Nathalia. 

But the Princess Sophia, of the first marriage, a 
virile and ambitious spirit, seeing that one brother 
could not reign on account of incapacity, and another 
on account of his youth, resolved to take the sceptre. 
She had simply to shelve Peter and reign for Ivan. 

Circumstances were favourable. 

Two days after the Czar Feodor's obsequies were 
celebrated, the Strelitz, the Muscovite militia, flew to 
arms at the Kremlin, complaining of nine of their 
colonels for cheating them out of their pay. The 
officers were cashiered and the men received their 
money. But that was not enough. They captured 
these officers, beat them with rods, and, in the Oriental 

68 




GRAND DUCHESS SOPHIA. 



XTbe IRomance of tbe Sttellt3 (3uar^ 

manner, made them beg pardon for having given them 
the trouble to beat them. Princess Sophia interfered 
in the height of this sedition. She sent the StreHtz a 
list of forty nobles whom she denounced as enemies 
of the country. Her emissaries averred that one of 
the two brothers of Czarina Nathalia had taken the 
Emperor's robe and posed on the throne in it; that 
this Naryschine meant to strangle the Emperor, and 
that Feodor had not died of weakness, but by poison 
from a Dutch doctor whom she named. All this was 
accompanied by presents and promises of a rise in 
pay to the drunken troopers. 

The plotter had nothing to say about Peter, a mere 
boy of ten, who, she hoped, would disappear in the 
whirlwind. 

At the head of the list were the Lords Dolgoruki 
and Mattheoff. The mutineers' chiefs broke into their 
houses and threw them out of the windows, when 
the pikemen caught them on their points. To punish 
Ivan Naryschine for the asserted sacrilege, they in- 
vaded the palace; but they found none of that race 
there but Athanase, whom they likewise cast out of 
the window; when three fugitives on the black list 
took refuge in a church, the Strelitz rushed in and 
slew them at the altar base. 

Czarina Nathalia comprehended that this work was 
but preliminary; she caught up her son in her arms, 
and, quitting the Kremlin, which was the citadel for 
Moscow, by a side door, fled across the fields. 

69 



(relel)rate^ Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

The Strelitz continued their hideous task. A by- 
stander was killed for Ivan Naryschine. Acknowledg- 
ing the error, they carried the dead to his father. This 
Soltikoff was so filled with the terror the swashbucklers 
kindled, that he thanked them and rewarded them for 
bringing him bis dead. The mother, not having this 
forbearance, reproached him for his meekness, but he 
said: 

" Wait for the hour of vengeance ! " 

But though this was spoken in a low voice, a 
Strelitz overheard it. Calling his comrades back, he 
grasped the old man by his hair and dragged him 
down on the threshold, where they slew him. 

They went hunting for the Dutch physician, Doctor 
Vangard, but met only his son. 

" Where is your father? " they challenged. 

*' I do not know." 

" Then you shall pay for him ! " and they killed him. 

They happened to run up against another doctor, 
who happened to be Dutch, too. He declared that he 
was not Vangard. 

" But you are a doctor ? Then you have been the 
death of many, if not of young Feodor — so die! " 

Finally they found Vangard, disguised as a beggar. 
They hauled him over to the palace. The other prin- 
cesses — there were six without Nathalia — were 
friendly to him, and sued for his release; but the 
mutineers said that he was a sorcerer and deserved 
death for that, as well as for being a physician. They 

70 



XTbe IRomance ot tbe Streltts ®uar5 

had found in his laboratory a stuffed toad and a ser- 
pent skin. Is it not by these signs that a wizard 
is known? Meanwhile, they still wanted Ivan Nary- 
schine, and, as they were sure he was hid in the 
palace, they declared that they would set fire to it 
to settle him, with all his friends and abettors. 

This frightened his sister and the other ladies. They 
went to his hiding-place and told him that they could 
no longer keep his pursuers from him. The young 
man replied that he was ready to die, but prayed for 
religious comfort. The patriarch was sent for, and, 
giving him an image of the Virgin reckoned mirac- 
ulous, led him, sheltered by the holy emblem, out to 
the ruffians. But without respect for that, the pa- 
triarch, or the princesses, they pitilessly tore Ivan from 
his hands and drew him down-stairs, to add him to 
Vangard, both doomed to death. 

This death was the Chinese one of " cut into ten 
thousand morsels," in plain words, hacked to mince. 
The deathsmen stuck the hands, feet, and heads on 
pikes and paraded them under the balcony. 

In the meantime Sophia had perceived the flight 
of the Czarina and her son, Peter, and sent the Strel- 
itz after them. The prince and his mother had gone 
a hundred miles, when they saw the dust whirling up 
behind them. The shouts showed that they were es- 
pied. The woman, resolved to fight for her son's life 
to the uttermost, dragged him into the first church 



71 



(Ielel)rate& Crimes ot tbe "Kusstan Court 

with her. It was the Holy Trinity, and it might 
impose by its majesty upon even these cutthroats. 

The boy was on the altar and the mother standing 
by it, both praying, when the bravoes entered. They 
broke down a sanctuary door, and one of them seized 
the prince and raised his sabre, like Abraham's knife 
over his boy. But this head was predestined; some 
mounted gentlemen, passing, wheeled, rode inside, and 
stopped the guardsman's hand. Peter was saved for 
Russia ! 

Thereupon, for fear of being accused of fratricide, 
Sophia proclaimed Peter and Ivan to reign conjointly 
as Czars, and constituted herself regent. 

Czarina Nathalia led her boy to the Kremlin in 
trembling, but he was treated fairly, like a prince. In 
that capacity he began to make acquaintances. 

Of a little boy who came peddling cakes, he made 
a favourite, whom he was to retain long. It was 
Alexander Menschikof, whom we shall meet again. 
He was also, boylike, enchanted with a boat made by 
a Dutchman, brought out of Holland in the previous 
reign. This man manoeuvred the boat on water, and 
Peter became struck with that love for the sea, odd 
but inevitable to those who learn about it first on 
dry land. Peter, in his childhood, had been so fright- 
ened by a cascade as to fall into a fit on hearing run- 
ning water; but, to overcome this weakness, he had 
deliberately thrown himself into the water. 

But the Princess Sophia still had her projects. She 

72 



XTbe IRomancc of tbe Strelit3 (5uar& 

sent the Czarlet a hundred miles from Moscow, to a 
village known as Preobrajenski. A hundred young 
Russians were assigned to associate with him, not like 
the fifty elected to consort with Sesostris, or the fifty 
sons of grandees like Cyrus's Persian elite^ but as 
" curled darlings," mignons, boon companions. If, as 
feared, the springall had any genius, debauchery 
should extinguish it. Peter took with him Menschi- 
kof and Brandt, the Dutchman who built the boat and 
was to continue to demonstrate how man conquered 
water. 

Prudence sent him fresh sustenance. A few days 
before his departure from Moscow, the Danish resi- 
dent presented one Lefort as a secretary. He was a 
Piedmontese of French origin, and came into Russia 
with one Colonel Western, who had a commission 
from the Czar Alexis to raise a few soldiers in Bel- 
gium. But when the two adventurers arrived, Alexis 
was dead and the country unsettled. The governor at 
Archangel had let Western and Lefort, as well as their 
soldiers, dwell in deepest misery. Each shifted for 
himself. Amid a thousand dangers, of which the least 
was starvation, Lefort reached Moscow, where he had 
applied to Denmark's representative, and was made 
secretary. 

Young Peter thought that he ought to pay his 
father's obligations. He offered Lefort a post at 
Preobrajenski. There, under Lefort, the village be- 
came a military school, where the fifty body-guardsmen 

72> 



Celebrated) Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

were officers of a regiment recruited there. It was 
styled the Preobrajenski Regiment. But, before being 
officers, the fifty served as soldiers, acted like them, 
going up through all the grades, and not passing higher 
until competent. 

With his own hands, Peter struck with the mattock 
and trundled the wheelbarrow to heap up dirt for 
entrenchments; like the rest, he passed part of the 
night in watching as sentry; then, as simple sapper 
and miner, he attacked, with hatchet in grip, the doors 
he had helped to make. 

In the midst of these exercises, hardening his body 
and fortifying his mind, Peter attained his seventeenth 
year. He was nearly six feet high and growing; he 
could sail his boat, go through the manual with any 
weapon, and use broadaxe, hammer, and chisel with 
the most skilled carpenter; he could turn wood, carve, 
and draw; he spoke Dutch and German along with 
his mother-tongue. With an opportunity, he would 
reveal himself to all eyes. This opportunity soon 
came. 

In his absence. Princess Sophia had had the imbecile 
Ivan wedded. Peter protested. At this, six hundred 
Strelitz were marched against him. Forewarned, 
Peter assembled his train-band under Lefort, and took 
refuge with them in that same vault of the Trinity 
Church, where his life had been saved so wondrously. 
Here he proclaimed himself Emperor, and called all 
faithful subjects to him. The boyars (or boyards, 

74 



Ube IRomance of tbe Streltt3 (Buarb 

nobles) hastened to him; the patriarch, seeing on 
which side his bread was buttered, to use a popular 
simile, passed over; Princess Sophia was declared a 
usurper, and Peter triumphantly marched into Moscow 
at the head of his Preobrajenski Regiment. 

The eighteenth century dawned as Peter stepped on 
the throne. William of Orange reigned in England; 
Louis XIV. was about to sign the Peace of Ryswick; 
the Elector of Brandenburg was haggling for the 
crown of Prussia; Charles XL was dying; and the 
famous drinker, Augustus of Saxony, was to displace 
the Prince of Conti and mount the throne. In Asia, all 
was over with any attachment to European affairs; 
the Emperor Leopold had vanquished Mustapha II., 
though Sobieski had died, despairing of saving Poland. 

Russia, turned, under the Rurik line, toward the 
east, now faced the west. The natural inclination in 
Northerners to seek light and heat, crossed by the 
great Tartar invasion, invincibly regained its power. 
Its frontiers were : the Ural River to the Orient ; the 
line drawn from Kiev to Astrakhan to the south ; the 
Dnieper and the Dwina to the west ; to the north, two 
cities ruined by Ivan the Terrible, Pskof and Nov- 
gorod. Farther yet to the north, the White Sea, still 
vexed for five months of the year, and for the rest 
motionless and deserted under the frost-king's chains. 

Peter inherited a kingdom all dry land, where, a 
prisoner without outlet, he stood like a lion-tamer, 
encaged with barbarism, sedition, and violence. First, 

75 



Celebtatet) Crimes of tbe IRusBtan Court 

he must finish, not merely curb, these wild beasts. 
Then he must master the northwest, the European sea, 
but so hyperborean that its shores were uncivilized. 
Its Gulf of Finland and Riga haven were two vents 
for escape of the Asiatic mephitic vapours. But these 
tracts belonged to a warring nation, the most redoubt- 
able of the world, separating Russia from that water. 
It was defended by forts manned by armies triple to 
that which Peter might muster. What matters ? When 
the hour should come, Russia would rush at the bull, 
and, seizing it by the horns, throw it. 

But before vanquishing others, Peter ought to rule 
himself. To teach others, he must know himself; to 
civilize, he must debarbarize. 

He left his realm in faithful hands, — Lefort's ; 
Gordon's, a Scot with all a Scottish reliability ; and the 
old hoyard's, Romodanovski. 

Peter took scalpel, compass, and axe in hand, and 
made the tour of Europe, as apprentices go the round 
before becoming a master. Strange example set by 
one born a despot, and made so by training and nature ; 
commanding a people where the noble is slave of the 
sovereign, the people the lord's serf, the son his father's 
slave, the woman the husband's ; and yet doing more 
for the freedom of all these than ever was done by 
an ancient republican or a modern patriot ! 

Yet peers, priests, the masses, women and youth, 
all clung to the hoary barbarism, coarse manners, and 



ye 



TLbc IRomance of tbc Strelits 6uarb 

moral darkness, making Russia more of a forest than 
a realm, says a native author. 

Peter did not continue Russia, but recommenced it. 
On whom would fall the first blows of the imperial 
athlete ? Soldiers, clergy, or lords ? On the first that 
tempted attack. 

The most discontented were the native soldiery, the 
Strelitz. General disturbance could be inferred from 
their grumbling. Europeanized regiments promised 
to oust them. Twelve thousand " heretics '' were 
keeping Moscow, the Sacred City, under foreign com- 
manders, while the natives were sent to the border. 
But the janizaries protested that defending their 
country was not their business. They were raised to 
make and unmake Emperors. 

Tsikler and Sukanine, two leaders of the militia, 
fomented a conspiracy, in which the young Czar, rec- 
ognized intuitively as an irreconcilable enemy, should 
infallibly lose his life. The Czar dead, they would 
bring Ivan out of his palace and Sophia out of her 
prison, and continue under their name the long reign 
of brutality, orgies, and pillage which is the career 
of praetorians. 

How would the plotters arrive at their goal ? Noth- 
ing more plain. No playing with a tiger-cub! 
Set fire to a house; Peter would come a-running, and 
mix with the crowd to put it out. A stab would finish 
him, and into the fire with all these outlanders who 
sullied the sacred soil! 

77 



Celebrated) Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

Midnight was the chosen hour. 

The bulHes assembled at eleven to sup. Strong 
waters were not spared to give courage to the flinching. 
But, before that, two of the conspirators weakened. 
They begged audience of the threatened man and dis- 
closed the regicide. 

Peter took his measures, ordering his captain of 
guards to surround the meeting-place at exactly half- 
past eleven. When they were ready, he was going 
to leap into the midst and fix their fate! But im- 
patience caused him to advance the hour. He thought 
his guards were to be on the spot at eleven, and he to 
enter at a quarter past. So that he found the partisans 
completely free, drinking, but with their swords by 
their sides. It was the Czar who was caught! 

Luckily, the lion could wear the fox's skin. With a 
smile on his lips, he stepped right into the thick of the 
amazed revellers. 

" Comrades," he said, " through the shutters I heard 
the clinking of glasses! My idea is that you were 
making merry! Room for one jolly fellow more!" 

He seated himself among the party, poured out to 
himself, and raised his glass. 

" To our health ! " said he. 

The intended assassins were forced to drink their 
victim's health ! But soon the surprised men looked 
at the situation soberly; menacing looks were ex- 
changed; luck had managed things for them better 



78 



TLbc IRomancc ot tbe Streltt3 Guarb 

than they could have arranged. The lamb was of its 
own impulse under the butcher's steel ! 

Tsikler bent over to Sukanine, and, half-drawing 
his dagger from the sheath, whispered : 

" Brother, it is time ! " 

But the other blenched. 

'' Not yet ! " he breathed. 

Peter caught this word, and, at the same time, the 
sound of the soldiers' tramp without, to surround the 
house. 

" Not yet? " repeated he. '' If there is no time for 
you, dog, there is for me ! " 

And, springing at Sukanine, he felled him with 
a blow of the fist. A thundering yell of rage burst 
out; all the mutineers drew their swords. Herculean 
as was the daring man's strength, he must have suc- 
cumbed, since there were a score of armed men against 
one. But the door was flung open, and the guards 
appeared on the sill. 

"At last!" said Peter, with a laugh. 

By that the plotters saw that they were outdone. 
Without trying to defend themselves, they fell on their 
knees. 

" Chains ! " said the victor, laconically. He turned 
to his officer and boxed his ears, saying : " Is this 
your notion of exactness? " 

The captain tranquilly drew the order from his belt. 
Peter read, " At eleven and a half precisely." He 
looked at his watch. It was now half-past eleven. 

79 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusslan Court 

With the rapidity of intelHgence, or, rather, of fair 
play, he acknowledged his wrong, took the officer in 
his arms, embraced him three times in the Russian 
manner, proclaimed him true, and set him as custo- 
dian over the prisoners. 

The wretches were put to torture, not to draw a 
confession, since they had all been taken red-handed, 
but to make them suffer all that could befall. They 
were dismembered, but not allowed to die as long as 
they had life to feel. Their heads were set on posts, 
and their limbs adorned the ground beneath. 

This execution over, the Czar started out on his 
travels. With a view to show how far-sighted were 
his plans, let us say that he wished to conclude peace 
with the Chinese and make war on the Turks. Both 
of these wishes he brought about. Between China and 
Russia, the two most extensive empires on earth, peace 
was concluded. The contest had been about some 
Russian forts situated on the Amoor River, the Black 
Stream of the Tartars and the Dragon of the Celes- 
tials. (At my writing, 1858, the Americans propose 
to build a railroad to the Amoor from Moscow, and 
to establish a line of steamboats to run on the Amoor 
to the Sea of Okhotsk, which is the Boreal Ocean. 
The Emperor refuses : the turbulent '* Yankees " dis- 
quiet their neighbours.) 

As for the Turkish War, it was at a befitting time. 
Venice was rising; Morosini, who had surrendered 
Candia, took the Peloponnesus; Leopold had success 

80 



Ube IRomance of tbe Streltt3 Guar^ 

in Hungary, and the Polanders contained the Tartars 
in the Krim. Azof was the key of the Black Sea on 
the way to Asia. This key taken and put by, the 
Czar might take that other key — Noteburg of the 
Baltic, the northern way. 

Peter went with the army, but only as a volunteer. 
Vanquisher at Azof, he made himself captain of bom- 
bardiers. 

While besieging that place his brother Ivan died, 
and he was sole master. Sophia was still living, but 
he had his eye upon her. Not only did he take Azof, 
but he burnt the Ottoman fleet. 

In 1697 he could take his pleasure trip. It was 
under guise of an embassy. He went as " Count 
North," with only his valet, a footman, and his negro 
boy. It was in England that he heard how the Strelitz, 
whom he thought restricted to the Crimea, had been 
put into movement by Sophia's machinations, and 
marched on Moscow. Gordon had beaten them badly 
in two engagements. Peter's heart leaped for joy. 

The terrible militia was wrecked; out of forty 
thousand, but a paltry seventeen or eighteen thousand 
were left! They had been carefully decimated by 
giving them all the foremost places in fighting the 
Turks. The officers ought to have replaced the losses, 
but, as their pay was the same whatever the muster, 
they pocketed the money and let the effective strength 
run down. Peter had calculated on this greed. 

Peter made such diligence in his return that he 

81 



Celebrateb Crimes ot tbe IRusstan (Toutt 

passed in at one gate of Moscow while the Strelitz 
prisoners were pouring in by another. It was the 
very occasion to finish with the brigands. He had 
them tried as ordinary assassins. Two thousand were 
doomed to be hanged and five thousand to lose their 
heads. This monstrous human battue lasted only one 
day. Peter was expeditious in such massacres. With 
his own hand he cut off one hundred of the first 
lot. He had a hundred axes distributed to his cour- 
tiers, and he forced them to use them for ten or twelve 
heads, when he allowed the soldiers to finish the hor- 
rible duty. 

Only one Strelitz was spared. He was a fine young 
fellow, named Ivan. He was nicknamed the " Eagle," 
Orell. As he was led up to the block, a corpse im- 
peded the way. He spurned it, saying: 

" Get out, it is my turn ! " 

This coolness impressed Peter. 

" Mercy for him ! " he called out to the man with 
the axe. That was not all. Peter placed the saved 
one in the ranks. 

The solitary Strelitz acquired the rank of oiificer, 
and that made him a gentleman. His son, Gregory, 
governor-general at Novgorod, had five sons known 
as the Orlofif brothers. Alexis Orloff was the mur- 
derer of Peter III. Gregory was the favourite and 
almost the husband of Catherine the Great, whom he 
assisted to reign. The descendant of the Strelitz 



82 



TLbc IRomancc of tbc Strelits Guarb 

spared by Peter the Great was to establish Catherine 
the Great! 

Three others had been spared, it is true, but for 
a worse fate. They had written an address calUng 
the Princess Sophia to the throne. They were hanged 
close by the princess's room, one of them holding the 
petition in his hand, so that his arm dangled in at 
the window. The order was that the man should 
hang till the paper dropped. This shock cured the 
princess of further thoughts of conspiracy, and she 
asked to retire into a convent. She changed her name, 
as being of sad note, to Marfa, and died as a nun 
in 1704. 

Some of the Strelitz had got away after the battles. 
The Czar ordered that no shelter should be given 
the fugitives, not even food. Their dead bodies were 
seen strewn on the roads, on the steppes and in the 
woods. Their relatives were sent into the remotest 
spots of Russia, with the injunction never to try to 
come home. To eternalize the memory of this whole- 
sale execution, Peter had pyramids set up on the high- 
ways, with inscriptions to testify to the extermination 
of the Strelitz. 



83 



CHAPTER V. 

the romance of cinderella the czarina 

(Catherine L, 1702 -1727) 

In the year 1702, the Russian general, Schemeretef, 
beat the Swedish general, Slippenbach, before Derpt, 
which he took, with four stands of colours — the first 
such trophies falling to Czar Peter's arms. This 
proved that King Charles XII. was no longer the 
Invincible. In the summer of the same year, this 
same Schemeretef again beat the same Slippenbach, 
and captured sixteen flags and twenty cannon. This 
success threw Marienburg into Peter's grasp. The 
town surrendered at discretion. The people selected 
their pastor to implore the victor's clemency. This 
worthy, in the position of suppliant rather than nego- 
tiator, sought out Schemeretef, who received him 
handsomely. But the general noticed in the midst of 
the family (using the word in the ancient Roman 
sense of all the household) a remarkably splendid 
woman, concerning whom he questioned. 

Pastor Gluck could tell him that her name was 
Catherine, but her family name was not known. In- 
deed, he knew no more about her than she could 
vaguely recollect. 

84 




CZARINA CATHERINE I. 



Zbc IRomance ot Ctn^erclIa tbc (Tsarina 

She believed that she was born at Derpt, about 
1686. She accounted herself Roman Catholic. She 
remembered having lived at Derpt until, the plague 
breaking out in Livonia, her parents fled before the 
contagion and took refuge near Marienburg. But the 
pest had marked them for its own; it hunted them 
down, and, little Catherine's parents dying, they left 
to the world three tender children, a daughter at 
Derpt, under a relative's care, and Catherine and her 
brother, brought with them. A farmer undertook 
to take charge of the boy, while the three-year-old girl 
was given to the pastor. But the plague reached the 
rectory together with the little orphan, for the pastor 
died, with some of his household. She was again 
homeless. 

Luckily for her, this same Dominie Gluck, then 
archpriest of the parish, was sent to Marienburg to 
attend to the wretched. He entered the rectory as 
the master was breathing the last sigh. The only 
living thing in the pestiferous habitation was the child, 
cowering in a corner, who ran to the good man at 
once, and, plucking him by the gown, called him 
" father," and, begging for bread, refused to leave 
him. The good man would not repulse this waif, 
but took her on his charitable rounds, as none claimed 
her, and led her away. 

On arriving home at Riga, he confided her to his 

wife, where she grew up beside their two girls, but 

in the post of kitchen-wench or little better. 

84 



Celebrate^ Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

She was about sixteen when a young recruit in the 
Royal Guards of King Charles XII., in garrison at 
Marienburg, came a-courting her. She was marvel- 
lously fair, and, with a view of affording her a war- 
like protector, the pastor consented to their marriage. 
But, three days after the wedding, the whole garrison 
received orders to join the Swedish army, then mak- 
ing war in Poland. As the young wife was left alone 
and did not know which way to turn to save herself, 
she came back into the reverend's house, working 
in the kitchen as before, as if her position had not 
changed. 

We reach the point again when Schemeretef saw 
the charming handmaid. He exercised his right, as 
the captain, and took her for his share in the booty. 
It was vain for the priest and the girl to remon- 
strate; Catherine was forced to become a servant in 
the general's house. She wept, for the military circle 
was very unlike the sacerdotal one. 

Catherine had been some seven months in Schemer- 
etef's service when General Menschikof came into 
Livonia; he was not yet a Russian prince or a noble 
of the Holy Empire, but he was a great lord and a 
skilful general, fit to take command of the Russian 
forces here. He bore the order to Schemeretef to 
join the Czar in Poland. Schemeretef had to depart 
instantly, leaving his attendants and taking only what 
military allowance dictated. Catherine remained with 
the women discarded. The newcomer noticed her — 

86 



TLbc TRomance of Cinderella tbe Csartna 

as all did — and offered to buy her. The departing 
chief could not do better than be paid for the useless 
*' baggage." He consented. The serf gained a 
younger and less stern master by the transfer. 

But Menschikof fell in love with the slave, and soon 
she was giving orders as housekeeper to the establish- 
ment. 

Things were at this point with the woman when 
Czar Peter, having made himself master of the Neva's 
course, arrived at Marienburg, and took up quarters 
with his commander there. With other servants, 
Catherine was designated to wait on the royal table. 
Her beauty made the usual impression; for, after the 
feast, the guest sent all away and held the host alone. 
The latter expected that there was going to be a 
conference on state business, but, to his high aston- 
ishment, the first question was : 

" Where did you get that slave they call Cath- 
erine? " 

The general told all that he knew about the woman. 
The next day, the Czar made a present to the house- 
keeper of a gold ducat. This was a pretty fee for 
waiting at table, even at that of royalty, but paltry 
as a gift from a Czar to a beauty he admired. But 
Peter came back. He had heard complaints of his 
general's exactions, and found that they were true. 
So Menschikof was amazed at his master's intruding 
upon him one morning without being announced. He 
was still more so when the ruler drubbed him with 

87 



Celebrated Crimea of tbe IRusBian Court 

his cane quite vigorously. It was the great man's 
habit ; ten minutes after the thrashing he would forget 
all about it, and not bear the flagellated one any ill- 
will. Having administered the correction, he stated 
the grounds, gave his favourite proof that he was not 
unjust, and remarked that, as he must live awhile in 
Livonia, he would go into housekeeping on his own 
account. But he promised to take dinner twice a 
week with him, which promise he kept. He dropped 
in two or three times, in fact, without any particular 
remark, until all of a sudden he asked : 
"By the way, where is that Catherine?" 
Menschikof could only stammer the name. 
" Yes, I do not see anything of her now. You are 
not greedy, are you ? " 

" All here belong to my master and benefactor.** 
" Well, call the girl ! I should like to see her 
again ! " 

Catherine came in, blushing and agitated. The host 
was similarly embarrassed. The Czar noticed the 
disquiet of both, and joked the woman about it. But, 
seeing that her reply showed more respect than jo- 
cosity, in harmony with his mood, he became thought- 
ful, waved her away, and affected not to direct a 
word to her during the rest of the meal. After 
supper, the strong drink came. The Hebe was Cath- 
erine; she brought the tray with liqueur-glasses to 
the guest. He looked at her a long while, as though 

he did not perceive what she stood there for. 

88 



Ube IRomance ot CinDerella tbe Csartna 

" Catherine," said he, at last, with a gentleness not 
his habit, " it seems we are not on as good terms as 
when I looked in last." 

Her eyes dropped and her hand trembled so that 
the glasses clinked on the tilting tray. 

"But I hope we shall make peace! Menschikof," 
he went on, abruptly turning on the man, " let me 
tell you that I am going to take this cupbearer with 
me!" 

With him, to say and to do were one; for he rose, 
and, clapping on his hat, took the woman's hand on 
his arm and walked out of the house with her to his 
own habitation. 

During two days, Peter saw his general without 
any reference to any topic but state affairs, but on 
the third he suddenly said: 

" I like the handmaid ! You must sell her to me." 

The other's heart was aching, so that he could not 
answer; he restrained himself to bowing deeply, and 
was retiring, when the despot remarked : 

" By the way, I ought to remind you that the 
poor thing is not overwell clad, and I hope you are 
going to supply her with a proper wardrobe! I 
should like her to be suitably ' rigged out.' Do you 
understand me, Menschikof ? " 

He uttered the seafaring word emphatically, to give 
it more value. Menschikof knew his master thor- 
oughly, and how he wanted to be obeyed. So he 
procured all the clothes which would suit Catherine, 

89 



Cclcbxatct> Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

and, joining to them a magnificent casket of jewels, 
he sent them all to her, with two slaves to be at her 
beck and call as long as she would keep them. Cath- 
erine found these gifts in her room when she went 
there. 

Surprised to the utmost height at seeing what she 
had not asked for, she went to her new master, and, 
smiling with the coaxing manner worth a crown, she 
said : 

" I wish you would come as far as my room, for 
I have something curious to show you." 

The Czar followed her, having become as much of 
her dangler as Menschikof had been. Master was 
turning into slave. She showed him the package of 
clothes, and gravely observed : 

" I see that I am to remain a long time at your 
orders, if I am to wear out these garments in your 
service! It is also proper that your Majesty should 
see all the riches that befall me!" Laughingly, she 
opened the parcel and spread the apparel about on the 
furniture. Wrapped up in the last robe was the jewel- 
case. 

" Oh, oh ! " cried she. " This is some error ! These 
were never intended for poor me! " 

Curiosity prompted her to open the casket, and 
she beheld rings, necklaces, and other precious gems 
worth twenty thousand rubles. 

" Is this a present," asked she, looking fixedly at 
the Czar, " from the old or the new master ? If from 

90 



XTbe IRomance of (^tn^erella tbe Csartna 

the former, why, he sends away his old dogs with 
fine collars ! " 

Mute and motionless, she stood awhile, till tears 
sparkled in her eyes. 

" Poor Menschikof ! " she muttered. She made an 
effort to master herself. " There must be no waver- 
ing: if these be from my former lord, back they 
go to him ! " Nevertheless, she singled out a small 
ring which had no great value, saying : " This is 
all I wish to accept from him; it is enough to re- 
member his kindnesses by. I do not crave his riches." 

Unable to contain herself, for she had hoped to 
become a princess through Menschikof's aid, she 
burst into tears and swooned. Peter called for help, 
and, bathing her forehead with Hungary water, 
brought her to consciousness. Then Peter told her 
that the jewels were a keepsake from Menschikof, and 
that she ought to keep them. He was only too pleased 
that a vassal of his had treated her so highly. 

" Accept," concluded he, *' and I will testify my 
thankfulness to him." 

Though Peter had called in assistance, it was he 
alone who had revived her with noticeable care and 
attentions. This was the more remarkable, as such 
courteous refinement was not among the Bear's habits. 
Many augured that here was a deep affection, and 
they were not deceived. 

As long as he dwelt in Livonia and thenceforward, 
Peter did not see Catherine and did not speak to a 

91 



Celebtate^ Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

soul about her; but when he had to return to Mos- 
cow, he charged a captain of his body-guards to con- 
duct her thither, recommending that she should be 
given all deference, and that he should have a daily 
report about her health. At the capital, Catherine was 
installed under an old gentlewoman, in a quarter re- 
mote from the court. The Czar used to visit there, 
wearing a slouch beaver and ample cloak, for mystery 
is the concomitant of royal love. In this house were 
born the Princesses Anna and Elizabeth. She could 
dream of her future grandeur while the lord was 
founding St. Petersburg. But, while engineer and 
constructor at his new capital, and administrator and 
legislator at Moscow, he had to be a general of the 
first quality to defeat the invincible Charles XII. 

After transforming a coarse and shapeless country 
into a powerful and victorious empire, Peter was to 
make of the Livonian Cinderella a Czarina, to bear the 
crown which she was to save. For the Czarina 
Eudoxie had been shut up the last five years in a 
convent. But it would require twelve years more 
before the usurper could be lawfully anointed and 
crowned. A strange occurrence came to remind the 
sinners of their true position. Among the prisoners 
made at Pultawa was the guards-soldier who had 
married Catherine, — the husband of a day — or two, 
to be precise. Transferred to Moscow with fourteen 
thousand other Swedes to grace Peter's progress, he 
entered the old Russian capital. Here he learnt what 

92 



XCbe IRomance ot (Ttnbcrella tbe Csartna 

was arranged between his wife and the Czar. Instead 
of being appalled, he felt hopeful, and entrusted the 
secret to the commissioner watching the prisoners. 
This man hastenea to report the claim to his highest 
superior. 

Peter wrote on the warning : " This man is a mad- 
man, to be treated like the other prisoners." 

So he was sent, " like the other prisoners," into 
Siberia, that land of outer darkness, whence none 
come out to see the day. He died there, about 1721. 
It was not till sure of his death that Peter publicly 
acknowledged Catherine. 

All at once, amid the feasts and triumphs, Peter 
learnt that two armies, one Turkish, the other Tartar, 
were marching upon Jassy. Numbering two hundred 
thousand, they were commanded by Mehemet the 
" Wood-chopper." He had been servant of all work 
in the harem, having his own way beside his Sultan; 
he had refused the commandership on account of this 
low origin, but the Grand Seignior had insisted, and 
gave him a jewelled scimitar as warrant. 

Proud on account of Pultawa, Peter came out 
against the Wood-chopper with only thirty thousand 
soldiers, but they were the flower of the Muscovites, 
and Russia, through him, was the Star of the North, 
the germ of civilization. He had treated with the 
hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia, but they failed 
him, and he stood on the Pruth banks, without sup- 



93 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

plies, only a few pieces of artillery, and not three 
rounds to fire, at that. 

" I am worse off than my brother Charles was at 
Pultawa," he said. 

He commanded a grand forlorn hope on the mor- 
row, and wrote to the home government that he 
expected to be defeated, and, if he were held captive, 
they were to pay no attention to orders purporting 
to be from his chained hand. During the night all 
the baggage was burnt. There would be no plunder 
for the victorious foe. The attack was to be made 
at dawn with the cold steel. 

In the night Peter had an epileptic fit. All great 
warriors, from Caesar to Napoleon, were subject to 
epilepsy. On opening his eyes, who but Catherine 
stood before him? His bosom counsellor, she had 
followed him over the Pruth. He might well be 
astonished to see her calm and firm, when he, the 
champion of culture, lay overthrown by sickness. She 
came to restore vanished strength and lost hope. It 
was no use battling — they should bribe ! 

With gold and jewels, any grand vizier can always 
be bought, she maintained. As she could not read 
or write, she had the despatches read to her from 
Count Tolstoi, their ambassador to Constantinople. 
He was a good judge of treachery, as he had betrayed 
the Princess Sophia to the Czar, and Catherine was 
sure that the Turkish favourites were in the market: 
the only thing was to fix the price. 

94 



Ubc IRomance of Cinberella tbe Csarlna 

Her voice had inspired the Czar to rise. He gave 
orders to a trusty intermediator. 

" But if the Turk agrees," asked he, " where are 
we to get the cash ? These rascals will not take pay in 
fine words ! " 

" Here ! " replied the deliverer, " for I bring my 
diamonds with me, and, before our courier gets back, 
I shall scrape together every copper in the camp." 

''Deo adjuvante! God speed thee! " said the mon- 
arch, using his personal motto. 

Catherine mounted a horse and rode about the 
camp; she made this speech to soldiers and officers: 

** Friends, we are in such jeopardy that we cannot 
save our liberty but on forfeit of our lives, or by 
making a bridge of gold for our foes to march over. 
If we take the former course, our money and gewgaws 
will be useless to us. Let us use them to seduce the 
enemy. I have already laid down my ornaments and 
gold — you ought, also, to furnish your quota ! " She 
addressed each officer directly, saying : " What are 
you going to give me, sir? If we get out of this 
danger, I will repay you a hundredfold — to say 
nothing of what I shall urge our father the Czar 
to return." 

From the general to the rank and file, every man 
gave what he had, so that there rose heaps of gold! 
Who shall say that this was not a Cinderella receiving 
her godmother's harvest? 

The messenger had returned to say that the grand 

95 



Celebrated Crtmes ot tbe IRussian Court 

vizier would welcome an agent to discuss peace. It 
is asserted that Catherine, not willing to let a second 
hand manage the treaty, went herself to the Turk. He 
said at first that the Czar must abjure and, then, 
" becoming our brother, we can refuse him nothing ! " 

Peter answered that he would give up all the land 
between there and Kertsch, as he might be able to 
regain it some day. 

" But the loss of my faith is irrecoverable. How 
could the grand vizier believe in the pledge of a 
recreant who denied his God?" 

The second demand was that the Czar and his forces 
should surrender under no promise. 

" In another quarter of an hour," replied the nego- 
tiator, grand chancellor or Catherine, as the case may 
be, " my master will fall upon you, and we shall die 
to the last sooner than accept such shameful condi- 
tions." 

At all events, that night the arrangement was 
signed. The Russ was to restore Azof, burn what 
shipping he had in the port, demolish forts, abandon 
all guns and munitions to the Grand Seignior, evacuate 
Poland, and renew the payment to the Tartars of a 
subsidy of forty thousand sequins, abolished by his 
previous victories. Fulfilling this, the Czar might 
retire with his men, guns, and colours flying. Over 
and above the bargain, the Turks offered to furnish 
food. Fortunately, the feebleness into which had 
fallen Sweden and her ruler, never recovering from 

96 



TLbc IRomance of (^tn^eteUa tbe Csartna 

Pultawa, gave the Russian respite. Things quieting 
down at home with the extermination of the Strehtz, 
Peter might quit his realm and roam over Europe to 
crop the sheaf of arts and knowledge, of which he 
had culled something in his first tour. He took his 
good angel, the Czarina, with him through Holland 
and Germany. He wished her to enjoy France, but 
etiquette opposed it. His consort was not publicly 
recognized, which was a hollow jest from a kingdom 
where Mme. de Maintenon ruled. 

But one day Peter learnt that the Livonian slave, 
torn from drudgery to be raised to the throne, the 
crowned Catherine, whom he had anointed with his 
own hands, had taken a favourite! He would not 
believe it at first, but he stooped to verify it in person. 
He burst upon the guilty pair and nearly killed the 
woman outright by a blow of his cane. The man 
cowered in the alcove curtains, but he went forth, 
without saying a word to him. Despite the scandal, 
he talked of having the Empress's head cut off in 
the market-place, but, dissuaded by the dread that a 
doubt would be cast on the authenticity of their daugh- 
ters, he had the villain, Moens de Lacroix, tried on a 
vague charge of high treason. He was condemned 
and beheaded. His sister, held as an accomplice, was 
doomed to the knout, and, it is asserted, the Czar 
flogged her with his own hand. She was then sent 
into Siberia. 

From a window in the Senate-house Peter saw the 

97 



(Ielebrate^ Crimes ot tbe IRusslan Court 

execution; he went out upon the scaffold, where he 
took up the severed head and slapped its cheek. He 
returned to his palace, where he bade Catherine join 
him in the carriage for an airing. Though suspecting 
some awful sight, she dared not refuse. In the open 
coach he conducted her to the place where the bloody 
scaffold still stood, and where the trunkless head was 
adorning a pike, and led her, afoot, so that she swept 
up blood-drops with her robe. Catherine did not 
blench : her marble visage betrayed no emotion. 

From that moment, all relations ceased between the 
couple, and only in public would Peter the Great see 
his consort. He burnt the will made in her favour 
— and he might well send her into the nunnery, like 
the first wife. 

Peter could not bear the ingratitude of the house- 
hold drudge whom he had made his declared wife, 
and in honour of whom he had created, and in mem- 
ory of the cruel day at the Pruth, the Order of St. 
Catherine's knights. And she had betrayed him 
within four months of his parading her as Czarina 
and consecrating her — where a woman had never 
been so elevated before. He had called her " More 
than wife," as she was " not merely a woman by my 
side, but a counsellor at the throne-room board." 

Catherine's thankfulness depended on hopes : as 
long as she was to gain, she was grateful. Still, the 
Czar's death might raise her one degree; high as was 
her throne, her mausoleum might be higher. 

98 



XLbc IRomance of Cinderella tbe Caatina 

To her real crime history, or, at least, romance, 
added a fictitious one: she is accused, with Men- 
schikof, of murdering Peter. It is a kind of justice 
that the woman, who escaped punishment for her 
actual misdeed, should carry into the grave the burden 
of a crime not hers. For the Colossus of the North 
died — years after he had worn out the scabbard of 
such a sword. Dying after tortures, he recognized 
that in him "man was but a miserable animal! " and, 
having paid his debts and released prisoners, he re- 
ceived the last offices, saying : 

'' I trust God will bestow one look of mercy on me 
for the good I have done my country ! " 

He died on the 28th of January, 1725, about four 
in the morning, which was his hour to rise and begin 
his never-finished tasks. Centuries have passed, but 
Russia still lives by his spirit. His memory is im- 
mortal, from the Baltic to the Caspian — and I defy 
you to set your foot where his has not trod in Russia. 

When the sun goes down, the stars peep out again. 

Menschikof had profited by his favour: it is not 
often that a favourite has been master of the favourite 
of his sovereign, and disposed of his rights to please 
the last. Perhaps Peter, who had seen how he op- 
pressed the people at Marienburg, and saw still more 
clearly how he was prodigiously enriched by his later 
exactions, meant to exile him. He might have done 
worse than that, but for his death. Menschikof, 
therefore, remained unhurt, his fortune intact, with 

99 



delebrateb (Trimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

all his honours, if not all his power. As field-marshal 
he had the troops under his thumb. He surrounded 
the Senate and marched with five hundred men within, 
where he proclaimed the succession to Catherine, 
hoping to reign in her name. 

But his wardenship weighed upon her, and she 
showed her irritation on this point. At once he fore- 
saw her early death, and set to choosing her successor. 
He promised the throne to the Grand Duke of Mus- 
covy, on condition that he married his daughter. The 
heir-expectant promised, whether he meant to keep 
the pledge or not. 

Indeed, as foreseen, Catherine fell ill. Menschikof 
would be her attendant, and she took all medicines 
from his hand. One day, the princely nurse took a 
potion from the lady in waiting. Catherine found the 
draught so bitter that she balked after two parts of 
it and handed the cup back. The lady could not 
understand how the drink of her own making could 
be so unpalatable, and finished the dregs, which were 
not to her taste now, either. The Empress died of it, 
while the lady was made sick, but saved by her hus- 
band, a chemist, administering an antidote. 

Menschikof became master, and lord in all ways. 
He wedded his daughter to the youthful Czar, and 
took guard over him, as though he were a prisoner 
who might run away. And, for that matter, the young 
prince did run, and at the flight the guardian foresaw 
that he himself was lost. He was arrested, and finally 

lOO 



Zbc IRomance ot Cinderella tbe Csarina 

banished to Siberia, after being stripped of his many 
insignia. His wife died on the road to exile, and he 
in the icy captivity. 

Catherine had outlived her duped husband but two 
years, and Menschikof, who deceived both, but by 
four. When his eldest daughter died in his arms, 
he said to the other children : 

" Learn, by this martyr's death, to die without any 
regret for the things of this world." But his other 
daughter, recalled, was made princess again, and be- 
came Duchess of Biren. 



lOI 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE LEGEND OF LESTOCQ 
(1692 - 1767) 

Hermann Lestocq is the hero of a comic opera 
by Scribe, which had a great success; the author 
treated his hero with his customary historical severity, 
but sufficient of the romantic tragedy in his career was 
omitted tO' require this remembrance. 

Lestocq was a barber-surgeon's son. From time 
out of mind barbers have been bloodletters, and the 
pursuit leads to the apprentice becoming surgeon, or 
doctor, solely, though the barber, as court annals 
evince, is the sole man in the kingdom who can with 
impunity " take the sovereign by the nose." 

Lestocq went as a surgeon to St. Petersburg, where 
he entered the household of the imperial princess, 
Elizabeth. She and her sister Anna were daughters of 
Peter the Great. Anna married a Prince of Holstein, 
and their son became Peter IIL 

Her aunt, Anna Ivanowna, was daughter of the 
idiot Ivan, who reigned conjointly with the Czar 
Peter. In virtue of a right arrogated by Russian 
monarchs to appoint their successors, Anna displaced 

102 



Zbc %CQcn^ of XestocQ 

Elizabeth from the Hne by setting on the throne her 
nephew, Httle Ivan Antonowitch, grandson of her 
sister, wedded to a Duke of Mecklenburg. 

The cause of this substitution was that Elizabeth, 
being thirty years old, would reign in her own right, 
while little Ivan, only a few months old, must have 
a regent. Biren was appointed regent. The petty 
Emperor reigned seven months, and paid for the 
ephemeral dignity by twenty-two years' incarceration 
and a sanguinary death. 

Biren was son of a groom to Duke James III. of 
Courland. Chosen captain of the royal hunt after 
ser^dce in the wars, he was made Duke of Courland 
when the duchess of that realm was made Empress of 
Russia. He was deeply hated by the Russians as a 
foreigner, to begin with, and as the sovereign's favour- 
ite, besides. He hated them in return, and would not 
learn their language, so that he might ignore the 
petitions the subjects addressed to his imperial lady. 
As long as she lived, he was protected by the Russians' 
love for her, against their hate for him. 

He believed himself popular, and was very haughty. 
One day he went so far as to say to the Czar's mother : 

" Mark well, madame, that I can pack you and your 
husband back into Germany, where there dwells a 
Duke of Holstein who will fill your place very well. 
I shall do that, too, if driven to it ! " 

This substitute was Peter of Holstein, son of Peter 
the Great's first daughter, Anna, and one yet to be 

103 



Celebratc^ Crtmes ot tbe IRussian Court 

Peter III. He was called to Russia, not by Biren, but 
by Elizabeth; to gratify another vengeance. This 
threat from the regent chilled communication between 
him and the imperial family. 

Toward the end of October, 1740, they took their 
revenge. General Munich overturned the regent, who 
was sent into Siberia with his wife. Munich was re- 
warded with the premiership by the Duchess Anna. 
She did not neglect the generally useless formality, 
having all the family pledge fealty to her regency. 

Among the takers of the oath was the Princess 
Elizabeth, who might believe in as much right to the 
crown as Ivan's daughter and Peter's great-grandson, 
since she was the great Czar's own daughter. She 
made no difficulty about taking the oath; she under- 
stood that the majority of the troops who had sup- 
ported old General Munich in arresting Lord Biren 
had done so in the belief that it was at her command 
and to her profit. 

But nobody paid any heed to the good, merry Prin- 
cess Elizabeth: she was a fair and good-natured 
woman, who wished to live " free and easy," as they 
say, and so would not marry. Her motto was that 
no woman is happy save when in love. She was fond 
of luxury, the table, and — it is a delicate point, but 
as there was an English queen known as " Brandy 
Nan," Elizabeth's partiality for cognac may pass at 
that coarse period. THe new regent was sure that, 
if she did not let her jovial relative want for monev. 

104 




COUNT MUNICH. 



XTbe %CQcnb of Xestocq 

she need fear nothing from her. Indeed, the carousing 
princess led her merry round and paid no attention to 
poHtics. 

Rondeau, the French ambassador to Russia, says of 
the black sheep : " She is not in good health, or feigns 
to be so; some say it is spite from her being set aside 
in favour of the Czarina Anna; others, merely to 
avoid being present at the coronation. I cannot affirm 
the reason; but it is certain that she leads a highly 
irregular life, and that the Czarina is not grieved at 
her losing public esteem." 

It was planned that she should be inveigled by 
Biren's brother, but the princess, however flighty, 
constantly held out against his siege. More or less 
on account of her quaffing of spirits, the future Eliza- 
beth *' the Clement," — because no executions took 
place in her reign, though her predecessor Anna had 
destroyed eleven thousand, some with refined torture, 
it was noted, — this Czarina in futuro had to keep 
her private physician busy. 

It was the Doctor Lestocq already cited. 

It is much to be a medical adviser to an imperial 
princess, but more to be that to a Czarina; Lestocq 
aimed to make his patient an Empress. It was not 
so hard a task. She represented the old Russian party, 
while the regent and her consort lived out of tune. 
Munich, the sword of the realm, had been ousted ; 
Ostermann, who would have been the eye, was laid 

up with the gout, and managed matters from the easy 

los 



€elebrate& Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

chair. Besides, the regent, so jealous about her 
authority as not to allow her mate a particle, might 
not be sorry tO' dispense with her premier. 

The English minister. Finch, expresses the senti- 
ments of the Conservative party, absolutely the same 
to this day, in his despatches : 

*' The nobles who own property are mostly favour- 
able to the present state. They keep in the swim. 
The greater number are inveterate Russian, and noth- 
ing but force and violence prevents them returning 
to their primitive manners. Not one among them but 
wishes St. Petersburg buried at the bottom of the 
sea, and all the conquered territory given over to the 
Old Harry, so they could dwell at Moscow, near 
their lands, and make a show at less expense. They 
do not wish to meddle with Europe. They hate 
foreigners, whom they only value to employ them at 
warfare and dismiss them when served. They simi- 
larly abominate sea voyages, and prefer to be sent 
into the most horrible wastes of Siberia than serve in 
the navy." Such is worthy Wr. Finch's political 
opinion. 

Would you like to hear his moral judgment? It is 
clear and concise : 

" I dot not know a single person here who would, 
in any other country, pass for a tolerably honest man.'* 
Our excellent Puritan set his signature to this. 

This is the society where Doctor Lestocq was to 

operate. 

io6 



Ubc %CQcn^ of Xestocq 

Commonly, princesses of the Elizabethan type are 
popular; feminine weakness is readily excused in the 
high-born. She made friends among the military 
officers, and was smiling and open-handed to the rank 
and file. Lestocq fanned this martial popularity. 

He also had frequent confabulations with the 
French minister, Chetardie. These intrigues were 
denounced to his government by our Diogenes-like 
Finch, whose diplomatic lantern had not shown him 
one honest man. Mr. Finch imparted his fears to 
the Prince of Brunswick, who went a little further, 
and found that the French ambassador often called 
in disguise and at unwonted hours upon the princess. 
If her conduct grew more alarming, he promised to 
have her shut up in a nunnery. 

" Hem ! a dangerous expedient ! " comments Mr. 
Finch, decidedly a chaff -finch, " for the lady has no 
inclination to religious life, and she is loved by the 
people.'* 

On hearing of this threat, Lestocq judged that he 
must strike quickly. 

He was a sort of all-round man. Not only was he 
a doctor and a politician, but an artist; at least, he 
could draw, in his leisure. He made a cartoon which 
he showed tO' Princess Elizabeth. It was a diptych; 
in one part, it pictured the lady on her Russian throne, 
with the Czar's crown on her head, and he on the 
throne steps, wearing the ribbon of the St. Andrew's 
order ; the other showed the lady, with her poll shaven, 

107 



Celebrated) Crimes of tbe IRuBstan Court 

and he broken on the wheel. Beneath was written: 
" To-day, thus — to-morrow, the other ! " 

You will remark that politicians — or, at least, poli- 
tic men of that period — were blunt and terse. 

On her part, the lady was quick and sharp. She 
fixed the very next night for carrying out the great 
plot: November 24, 1741. 

At midnight she prayed, and donned the ribbon of 
the St. Catherine Order, founded by Peter L, in 
memory of his army being miraculously delivered from 
the Turks. 

Lestocq and Michael Woronzoff mounted behind 
her carriage. They went to the barracks of the Preo- 
brajenski Guards, the first regiment founded by Czar 
Peter. Those in the design had coaxed over some 
three hundred grenadiers. 

" Friends,'' said the woman, " you know whose 
daughter I am ? Follow me I " 

" We are ready — and we will kill the whole of 
them!" 

As this was more than she desired, she cautioned 
them to kill nobody without orders, and directed 
them to the Winter Palace. She was followed by the 
three companies, muskets loaded, but the bayonets 
fixed. In the first guard-house they came to, a drum- 
mer set to beating the alarm, but a clever slit with 
a knife silenced his drum. Who gave this timely cut, 
— Elizabeth or Lestocq ? Both claim the honour ; but 
we are inclined to believe that it was Lestocq, more 

108 



Ube Xcaenb of Xestocq 

likely to be clever with the steel, as a surgeon, than 
the Empress, who would not be carrying so much as 
a penknife or a pair of scissors. The drum disabled, 
the guard-house was surprised, and the soldiers joined 
their comrades so that all entered the Winter Palace 
without resistance. 

At the boy Emperor's door, a sentinel lowered his 
bayonet on the rebels. 

" What are you about, donkey ? " cried Lestocq ; 
" ask your pardon of the Empress ! " 

The soldier fell on his knees. The Duke and Duch- 
ess of Brunswick were put under arrest while abed. 
So they had served the Duke of Biren and his lady. 
As for little Ivan, awakened suddenly and seeing the 
soldiers around him, he began to weep. His nurse 
ran to him, took him in her arms, and sought to quiet 
him; but she could not succeed; his woes were to 
last twenty years! The prizes were taken to Eliza- 
beth's mansion. That same night, all who had con- 
certed in Biren's downfall and setting up young Ivan, 
— Munich, Ostermann and their allies — were 
arrested. 

Three days after, Czarina Elizabeth declared that 
the Princess Anna, her consort and their son had no 
claim on the Russian crown, and would be sent home 
into Germany. In the interval, they would be shut up 
in Riga fort; but they passed on, and the child ar- 
rived parentless at Schlusselburg. His mother died 
on the journey, and the Duke of Brunswick was 

109 



Celebrateb Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

released as being of no alarming capacity. When you 
bid your Ophelia get into the nunnery, it is well to 
see that she is put there. 

Lestocq was created count and private counsellor 
to the Empress, while remaining her private medical 
attendant, and given a pension of seven thousand 
rubles and a diamond- framed portrait of the lady he 
had exalted to the imperial purple. 

Chetardie was made director of politics, and acted 
solely for France. 

The three hundred grenadiers who were " loyal '' 
were promoted into a company by themselves, as 
body-guards, all the privates ranking as lieutenants, 
and the sub-officers as captains and majors. The six 
superior officers who had subverted the rest were 
made lieutenant-colonels. The Empress appointed 
herself colonel, and wore the special uniform some- 
times. 

The old Russ party clamoured for the expulsion 
of foreigners. Art, science, and letters were banished, 
together with the opposition, Munich, Ostermann, and 
their friends condemned to death, but merely exiled. 

Whereupon, having no one to hold her hand, the 
" bachelor-princess " turned a moral vault, and mar- 
ried. She wedded her favourite, Razumowski, a man 
of her own age, and chapel-master. The celebration 
was public, at Moscow, but the bridegroom was 
modest, and never meddled with politics, which Bestu- 
chef and Schuvalof controlled. A long while after, 



Ube Xegenb of Xeatocq 

when Gregory Orloff pestered Catherine to follow 
Elizabeth's example as to marrying her " Leicester," 
a lawyer was charged to question Razumowski upon 
the formula, so that it might be followed. But old 
Razumowski reflected on the request. He went to 
his writing-cabinet, took out a packet of papers, and, 
without saying a word, threw the bundle into the open 
fire; he watched till all were reduced to ashes, and 
when the black pile had the scintillating sparks die and 
fall on the mass, he returned to Orloff's envoy and 
said: 

" I do not know what you mean by asking me for 
papers regarding my marriage with the Empress Eliza- 
beth. I have never had the honour to be the husband 
of the Czarina." 

Catherine comprehended this piece of indirect ad- 
vice, and remained a widow. 

To finish : Lestocq made the mistake of promoting 
to power over his head this Bestuchef, one of the men 
who put into practice, whenever they can, the grand 
precept of one of our modem philosophers : " Ingrati- 
tude is independence of the heart." 

He naturally worked from the start to upset his 
benefactor. Lestocq's first loss was in Chetardie being 
called home from St. Petersburg, leaving with a 
million rubles given him by Empress Elizabeth. 

Ten months after he had " made " the Czarina, Les- 
tocq was tried for high treason, in secrecy; tortured 
three times and flung, with a broken frame, into exile 

III 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

at Uglitsch, a petty village on the Volga, but soon, 
as that was too near the capital, sent to Archangel. 

The Empress, knowing that all revolutions occur 
in the dark at St. Petersburg, could no longer sleep, 
and, unfortunately, she had deprived herself of the 
private physician. She had to find a man, a soldier, 
so homely that no one could accuse her of any amorous 
weakness in selecting him for watchman in her ante- 
room. 

She died at the height of the corruption she fos- 
tered by her luxury and lassitude. Swaart, the Dutch 
minister to Russia in her reign, says : " Never was 
there, even in this country, a more dangerous, dis- 
ordered, and deplorable state of things. The Empress 
troubles about nothing at all, and continues her old 
style of living; she abandons the realm to pillage." 
This disorder did not terminate by her death in 1762. 



112 




CZARINA ANNA. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ROMANCE OF THE BOY CZAR 
(1740- 1750) 

On the silvery waters of Lake Ladoga, from a little 
village of which I have forgotten the name, rises the 
low and lugubrious profile of the fortalice of Schlussel- 
burg. Its first name was a humble one and forgotten ; 
its present one signifies the Town Key; and, indeed, 
it is a great stone lock, of which the wards are the 
cannon. A proverb says that " walls have ears." If 
these walls, besides ears, were gifted with a tongue, 
what gruesome stories it would prattle ! We put 
ours at the service of the stronghold, and will tell 
one tale for it. 

Here was nurtured, confined, and assassinated " the 
Little Ivan." 

I do not know of a more mournful legend than this 
royal infant's, even that of Drusus's, dying of starva- 
tion, after champing his mattress straw; or even 
Clodomir's, slain by Clotaire, or yet little Arthur of 
Brittany's, whose eyes were put out by orders of his 
Uncle John. 

The sister of the short-reigning Czarina, Anna, had 

113 



Celebrated) Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

married a Duke of Mecklenburg, and their child grew 
up to become duchess of the same place. This one 
married Duke Antony Ulrich of Brunswick, hence the 
son called Ivan Antonowitch — meaning Antony's 
son. 

To this grand-nephew the Empress left her throne, 
in dying, rather than to Peter's own daughter, Eliz- 
abeth Petrowna, born of Catherine I. in 1709, whom 
she treated as an outcast. 

In the night of the 17th October, 1740, the Empress 
died. 

The next day was formally read her will, which 
named the little Ivan her successor as Emperor, and 
appointed Biren, Duke of Courland, regent until the 
boy reached his seventeenth year. This regency, 
planned to last long, endured twenty days. By a 
" palace revolution," young Ivan's mother, Anna, de- 
spoiled Biren of his honours overnight, and pushed 
him off his stool into exile. She was proclaimed as 
grand duchess and regent, her husband generalissimo. 
Count Munich her premier, and Ostermann lord high 
admiral and foreign minister. 

The act had disappointed several persons. First 
was the Princess Elizabeth, Peter the Great's second 
daughter, who had always hugged the prospect of 
being next Empress to Anna Ivanowna. This would 
have happened but for the latter's tenderness toward 
her favourite; she had expected, in appointing Biren 
regent, to confirm his powers for the minority. By 

114 



Ube IRomance of tbe :Bo^ C3ar 

preferring Elizabeth^ she would cause the immediate 
expatriation of the Duke of Courland to his princi- 
paHty, if no farther. The Duke of Brunswick and 
his wife were also baffled. 

By arresting Biren, Marshal Munich had won the 
rank of commander-in-chief, but he resigned it that 
the army might have the honour of being commanded 
by the sovereign's father. Yet he had added to his 
letter of resignation : " Although my great services 
to the state might well merit that honour ! " Still, in 
transferring the post to the duke, the warrior gave 
only an illusory meed — he was the real general. This 
Christopher Burchard was the favourite pupil of 
Prince Eugene, and had gone through the War of 
the Spanish Succession. Stern and hard, he had passed 
into Peter the Great's service, for whom he built the 
Lake Ladoga Canal. Anna Ivanowna made him field- 
marshal and privy counsellor. As Count of Munich, 
he fought and beat the Turks and the Polacks. Biren, 
fearing his influence, kept him out of the capital by 
affording him plenty of occupation in the border strife. 
One of these campaigns cost Russia a hundred thou- 
sand men, so disastrous was it, but Munich grew 
greater, if possible. Always in the lead, he made the 
most difficult marches, and maintained discipline by 
dread justice. 

Some general officers lengthened out a halt longer 
than the indefatigable German allowed. They were 
bound to cannon and dragged along when they could 

115 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusslan Court 

not walk. Soldiers, in fear of the wide sandy tracts, 
pretended to be ill. He published an order that any 
one too sick to march should be buried alive. Three 
soldiers, sentenced for *' malingering," or pretending 
illness to avoid duty, were actually buried alive in 
front of the army, which had to march over them, 
so that they were obliterated, trampled upon, perhaps, 
while still breathing. From that moment never was 
there a healthier army. 

At the siege of Otchakof a bombshell lighted such 
a fire in the town that the people could not master it. 
Munich profited by the conflagration to order an as- 
sault. But the flames ran out to the ramparts, and 
the foes would have to contend with that element as 
well as the defenders. The Russes recoiled. Munich 
trained and aimed a battery of guns at them, so that 
their only refuge was within the fiery walls. Three 
powder-magazines blew up, covering both forces with 
burning embers, but, between two modes of death, the 
Russians chose that less certain. The city was taken. 
Any other man but Munich would have been repulsed. 

This was a terrible antagonist, more so than Biren, 
but, as he had upset the latter, so the Princess Eliza- 
beth, taking a page from his book, upset him, too, but 
in this way. She had the other grand duchess ban- 
ished, and set down Munich for a trip to Siberia, 
displacing him by the Doctor Lestocq, as we have else- 
where narrated. On the new Czarina's last birthday 
as princess, little Ivan had made her -a present of a 

ii6 



Zbc IRomance of tbe Bo^ Caar 

gold snuff-box — it is honorary, and does not imply 
that the brandy-drinker was also a snuff-taker. Let 
us see what return she made the boy, when in the 
highest seat. She had the first impulse to send him 
along with the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick over 
the frontier; but, revoking the first intention, as 
diplomacy counsels, she had the three prisoners shut 
up at Riga, in the castle. Later, they were taken 
away to Archangel; the lady dying in 1749, and her 
husband twenty years later. 

As for little Ivan, culpable of reigning nominally 
seven months, and at an age when he did not know 
what a throne was, he was parted from his parents 
and lodged in a convent on the Moscow Road. 

In his " History of My Times," by Elizabeth's phy- 
sician, — one Frederick, not Lestocq, — it is alleged 
that a philtre was given to Ivan, through which his 
brain was addled. I do not believe this. The local 
tradition, as I heard it, is that he was a bright and 
pretty boy, and likely to turn out a handsome young 
man. If he had been a weakling and an idiot, Eliza- 
beth would not have balanced the idea an instant 
between him and the Duke of Brunswick, with whose 
hand Biren had threatened her celibacy ; and Peter III. 
would not have had the idea to make him his successor 
by repudiating Catherine and denying Paul I. ; and, 
if an idiot, he would have died a natural death in 
prison, as he lived. 

In 1757, as he came to be seventeen, the United 
"7 



(^clebrate^ Crimes ot tbe IRusBian Coutt 

States of the Netherlands had a minister at St. Peters- 
burg, Swaarts, interested enough in the goings on to 
write to Mr. Mitchell, the British minister at Berlin: 

" At the beginning of last winter, Ivan was brought 
out of Schlusselburg to St. Petersburg, where he was 
lodged in a pleasant house, belonging to the widow 
of a late secretary of the Secret Inquisition. Here he 
is closely watched. The Empress had him brought 
to the Winter Palace, where she saw that he donned 
men's clothes. It is doubtful which of the three will 
mount the throne, he, the grand duke, or grand 
duchess." 

But Elizabeth fell back on her nephew of Holstein, 
and died recommending him, in 1762. As the kind 
lady would not allow any capital punishment in her 
reign, the boy Czar might lie in prison, but he ran 
no risk of death. After his interview with the sov- 
ereign, Ivan was returned to Schlusselburg. Peter III. 
saw him there, and once again he was brought to St. 
Petersburg. Nothing is known of the effect of this 
double imperial view, but no doubt the apprehension 
the boy heir inspired to Catherine 11. hastened her 
reversal of the will and the death of Peter III. 

Once on the throne, Catherine II. gave strict orders 
concerning the youth. In the middle of the fort yard 
was built a wooden house; the whole was encircled 
by a gallery, paced by sentinels day and night. His 
bed was set in the centre of a room, as the house was 
in the fort court. Then, from the ceiling, was lowered 

118 



XTbe IRomance ot tbe Bo^ (Tsar 

an iron cage, which entirely engirdled him; at the 
same time, a loophole was unshuttered in the wall, 
and disclosed a great gun, loaded with case-shot and 
levelled on him. 

Enclosed as he was, and because he was so closely 
enclosed, the young prince preoccupied all minds. 
Never was there trouble in the capital but that his 
name was uttered and reechoed as a threat to Cath- 
erine II. 

Ambassadors spoke of him to their monarchs. 

In August, 1 75 1, Lord Buckingham, the British 
ambassador, wrote home : " Opinions differ about 
young Ivan : some say he is utterly an idiot, others 
that he is only lacking education." 

About ten years later, there was a Cossack named 
Mirowitch who conceived the idea of kidnapping the 
heir by some such bold stroke as Lestocq and Munich 
had practised. He was grandson of a man ruined 
by following the flag of Mazeppa. Worried by his 
poverty, his spirit was restless. He forgot that, every 
time a favourite raises a woman or a man to empire, 
the favourite is dismissed. Being on guard at Schlus- 
selburg, he determined that he would remove the 
young Czar out of bondage. 

There is another version. It does not lack proba- 
bility, and harmonizes with the genius of Russian 
policy so demoralizing, for as Mr. Finch, again 
quoted, says : " This country has not a passably honest 

man in it! " Catherine opened her confidence to her 

119 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

favourite, Orloff, and not Potemkine, as some assert. 
The captive gave her anxiety, although the orders 
were to kill him if he attempted to escape. The confi- 
dant made sure that the deadly order was standing, and 
based his move upon that. Investigation revealed 
Mirowitch's own ambitious plans. The young Cos- 
sack was brought to Orloff, who imparted the Em- 
press's uneasiness, and promised him mountains of 
gold if he would dissipate them. But how ? The way 
was simple. As the orders were for Ivan to be fired 
upon if he tried to escape, Mirowitch had only to 
make the attempt and Ivan would be shot down. He 
would not only be pardoned for the mock kidnapping, 
but his fortune ensured for the feigned plot. The 
hearer, from the confidant making the proposition, 
did not doubt that it originated from the Empress. 
He accepted, and received as earnest-money a thou- 
sand silver rubles. With it he bribed twenty soldiers. 
He would lead them upon the governor and summon 
him to surrender the boy Czar. 

Here the two versions merge. 

The castle commandant refused. By Mirowitch's 
order, the hirelings sprang upon him and pinioned 
him. The chief being powerless to oppose the revolt, 
Mirowitch ordered the powder-magazine keeper to 
supply his followers with ammunition. Fully equipped, 
the Cossack marched to the prisoner's quarters. 

But all these movements were not accomplished 
without some stir. A captain and a lieutenant at the 

1 20 



Ube IRomance of tbe Bo^ C3ar 

prince's apartments heard the noise. So they refused 
when Mirowitch knocked at the door, announcing that 
he was master of the fort, and asking for the Emperor 
to be transferred to his hands. On a second refusal, 
the commander of the rescuers had the door beaten 
down by musket-butts. But the officers informed the 
rebels that they had orders to kill their prisoner in 
case of a plot to deliver him. If they did not retire, 
they would be compelled to act on the instructions, 
but Mirowitch pressed onward all the more. 

In spite of the shower of blows rained upon the 
barrier, they heard a most piercing shriek. 

" They are murdering the Emperor ! " shouted the 
Cossack, smiting with an axe so that the split panels 
gave way. 

But they penetrated too late: the guardians had 
carried out their order. Inside the enmeshing cage 
Ivan seemed to sleep. It was through the bars that 
the captain had darted his sword. That was what 
occasioned the death-scream overheard without. But 
the stricken one rose against his assailants ; he grasped 
the sword and wrested it from the bloody hand; he 
opposed all the defence he could, fencing through the 
grating. After so many days languishing, the poor 
captive might well think that Providence owed him 
some compensation. He would not lay down his life. 
With seven slashes he still lived, and only the eighth 
slew him. 

That was the crisis when Mirowitch burst into the 

121 



(Telebrateb Cttmes ot tbe IRussian Court 

room. The prince was breathing his last. The slayers 
made the cage ascend and unmask the ensanguined 
bed. 

" There's his dead body — make the most of it ! " 
they taunted. 

Mirowitch took the dead body in his arms, and 
carried it to the guard-house, where he wrapped it in 
the flag. Then making his followers kneel, he pros- 
trated himself to the Emperor and kissed his hand. 
He took off his gorget, his sash, and his sabre, and 
laid them beside the corpse, saying: 

" Behold our lawful lord, our Emperor ! I did all 
I could to restore him to you ; now, being dead, I have 
no reason to live, as I risked my life for him." 

Arrested, he was taken to St. Petersburg and shut 
up in a cell. During the trial next day he showed 
much calm and steadiness. Those who pretended that 
he was Catherine's secret agent saw in this bearing 
the belief that she would carry out the promise of 
her favourite. To the question, " Who were your 
confederates?" he always answered negatively, say- 
ing that the soldiers and non-commissioned officers 
who aided him could not be considered accomplices, 
as they were only subordinates who obeyed him. 

But he was condemned to be broken on the wheel. 
The Empress commuted the penalty to decapitation. 
The execution took place within the citadel. The 
headsman, judges, and soldiers guarding were the sole 
witnesses. Therefore, it is not known what he may 



Ube IRomance of tbe JSo^ (Tsar 

have said at the last hour. No doubt there was too 
much danger in repeating any such words. 

I possess a ruble-piece of young Ivan, struck dur- 
ing his seven months' reign; it is the more rare, as 
Empress Elizabeth, wishful to wipe out all record of 
that reign, ordered a general recoining of all currency. 
It is, perhaps, the only token in all the world of an 
Emperor in bib and tucker. 

As the wise physician allows a spoonful of jam 
after a bitter pill, so I may offer a merry tale about 
the gloomy fortress, after the Czaricide. 

The Russian police do not play with the artists who 
make sketches of strong places, and a friend of mine 
found that out to his cost. 

He was brother to my good friend, Noel Parfait, 
and was a professor. 

It was an awkward period; namely, the Crimean 
War time. Nevertheless, being in occupation at St. 
Petersburg, he planned with two brother savants to 
pass a week's holiday in exploring Lake Ladoga. 
Being March, the Neva, the Baltic, and the lake were 
all ice-bound. The principal occupation was, conse- 
quently, much skating. This means of locomotion 
would grant the three learned men great facilities of 
examining the fort from all sides, as it is surrounded 
by water, being located at the springing of the Neva 
from the lake. To the great uneasiness of the sen- 
tinels on the walls, the trio skimmed all around their 
posts, darting about on their §kates like swallows. 

12^ 



Celebrated Crimea ot tbe 1Rus5ian Court 

This might not so much have mattered, but our 
Frenchman — the French have the reputation abroad 
of being mad — had not the sense to confine himself 
to the gambols and figure-cutting appropriate to the 
ornamental waters of the Paris parks. He must needs 
sit on a rock and, pulling out a note-book, draw the 
citadel ! 

The sentinel who spied him recovered breath from 
the shock and called the corporal; he notified his 
officer, and, with eight men, the latter went out and 
walked in upon the three Frenchmen in their inn, 
where they were warming up before a good fire and 
a better dinner. He signified to them that they had 
the honour to be prisoners to his Imperial Majesty 
the Emperor of All the Russias. In this capacity they 
were allowed to finish their meal, but they were 
searched and all their papers taken from them; they 
were tied to one another, for fear of a loss, put into 
a cart, and driven to St. Petersburg. 

There they were put in the fortress. They claimed 
the help of Count Alexis Orloff, the imperial favourite. 
Luckily, Orloff was a very intelligent man. He had 
lived so long in the intimacy of spies, conspirators, 
and secret agents that he did not believe them. Going 
to the prison, he questioned the captives one by one, 
with severity, but courtesy, too, and told them that, 
though they were heinously guilty, he hoped that the 
Czar's clemency would commute their grave penalty 

of a residence in Siberia. 

124 



XTbe IRomance of tbe J5op Caar 

The poor scholars were prostrated. One of the 
crimes held up to them, besides their sketching Schlus- 
selburg, was their drinking the health of their foreign 
country, France, in kwass. It appears that, to use the 
national beverage, much added to the enormity of the 
original offence. 

At ten next evening, one of those penal vehicles, 
half-box, half-stage, arrived at the prison. The 
offenders were notified that their sentence had been 
passed, and that they would have to bow to it. Con- 
trite, but calling their native pride to their support, 
the trio put the best face on the matter. Bravely 
stepping out, they shook hands with each other, con- 
gratulating themselves that at the worst they were to 
suffer in company, and mounted into the tumbrel. Its 
shutters were hermetically sealed over the windows, 
and off the vehicle lumbered, drawn by four horses. 

But to the exiled ones' highest astonishment, it 
rolled under another vaulted way after only ten min- 
utes' journey. The doors were opened, but footmen 
in rich livery presented themselves instead of the 
scowling Cossacks expected. They guided them to the 
foot of a splendidly illumined staircase, and indicated 
that up that golden course was their destination. 

They did not dare hesitate. They climbed the stairs 
and were ushered into a refection-room, served with 
all the lavishness of the old Russ nobility. Count 
Alexis Orloff was waiting here. 

" Gentlemen," he said, ^* your worst misdeed was 

I2S 



(Ielebrate& CrimeB of tbe 1Ru6Stan Court 

drinking to France in Russian beer. You shall 
expiate that on the spot by drinking the health of 
Russia in champagne ! " 

If they had not been patriotic, they would still have 
obeyed willingly. 

It will be seen that — if not all Russians — the 
Orloffs have a very good notion of a practical joke. 
Stop ! I am wrong : I can guarantee that the Roman- 
offs are also prone to a hoax. 

As Peter found St. Petersburg mud and made it 
— wood — it is logical that smoking should be pro- 
hibited in the streets. A cigar butt incautiously 
thrown down might repeat " the Burning of Moscow." 

As it is a ruble fine to be caught with a cigar alight, 
the Emperor Nicholas was much surprised to see from 
his sledge a man puffing away boldly at a pure Havana. 
But he saw that it was a foreigner — a Frenchman at 
that. He alighted, went up to him, and, reciting the 
mandate, assured him that, if he would allow him to 
give him '' a lift," he would take him to the only 
place in town where smoking was allowed. He did 
conduct him to the Winter Palace, where he further- 
more led him into the grand dukes' smoking-divan, 
where he begged him to make himself at home. 

"Fire away, sir!" he said, cordially, "for this is 
the only spot in the city where smoking is not pro- 
hibited." 

The Frenchman, having finished his smoke in peace 
and amid luxury, naturally inquired of the porter if 

126 



Zbc IRomance of tbc Bo^ Csat 

he could acquaint him with the name of the obliging 
gentleman who had brought him into such a smokers* 
paradise. 

" It is the Emperor," he was answered. 



127 



\ 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ROMANCE OF CATHERINE THE GREAT 
(1762- 1796) 

Although the Empress Elizabeth was fonder of 
pleasure than of statecraft, she had the sense, as ruler, 
to know that a proof of the stability of kingdoms is 
to have an heir presumptive on the steps of the throne 
where the sovereign is seated. 

She summoned her nephew to the capital, where 
she recognized him as her successor; it was Peter, 
Duke of Holstein-Gottorf, born in 1728. He reached 
St. Petersburg in February, 1742, being fourteen 
years old. In spite of being a boy, his aunt hast- 
ened to find him a wife. Her choice fell upon Prin- 
cess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, whose father. Governor 
of Stettin, was not eager tO' give his darling to the 
heir of a throne unsure of being duly inherited. We 
have to say *' Sophia," as the lady, Voltaire's " Semira- 
mis of the North," took the name of Catherine, under 
which she achieved celebrity, only on embracing the 
Greek Church faith. 

She was born at Stettin, May, 1729, so that she was 
her husband's junior by a little over a year. 

128 




CZARINA CATHERINE II. 



Ube IRomance ot Catbertne tbe 6reat 

The marriage was performed in September, 1745. 

The bridegroom was feeble in mind and body; his 
education had been neglected under mere hirelings ; his 
brow was permanently bald, his eye lack-lustre, and 
his lower lip a hanging one. 

On the other hand, the bride of sixteen had exu- 
berant beauty, bewitching wit, regal manners, and a 
complexion fresh as the rose or the peach. 

Together with this, a character firm, bold, resolute, 
adventurous, persevering, but tempered with perfect 
graciousness and complaisance, not simply one to take 
an ascendancy over m^n, but to preserve it. 

It was not till 1755 that the pair was given a son 
and heir, baptized as Paul Petrowitch — or Paul, son 
of Peter. But the child was inconceivably ugly — we 
need not mince words — for the offspring of so bril- 
liant a beauty. The mother showed hatred for it 
from the first step. He grew up to be unworthy of the 
exalted position which his mother's reign prepared 
him. As a descendant of Peter the Great and King 
Charles XII. of Sweden, he was trained to be a great 
man. But his aspirations, being ill-sustained, were 
evinced in base and lowly acts and actions. His 
examples, followed, were the failings and puerilities 
of great heroes. With naturally a comical figure, he 
wore the great Frederick's military costume so as to 
be more ridiculous than ever. His little pinched-up 
face was like an ape's, and he grimaced like one. 

Catherine held a court apart from her husband's, 
129 



delebrateb Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

and engineered everything toward having her son 
substituted for the husband whom she despised and 
derided; if the deed were soon done, she might long 
be regent. But two things were the pivots here : the 
Empress should die, or her nephew be unseated. 

Elizabeth, though a free liver, might last long, and 
it was not easy tO' depose the grand duke. 

Meanwhile, Catherine was at odds with her mate; 
she became profoundly isolated. Her favourite wait- 
ing-maid was taken from her and sent into imprison- 
ment. She might, for the time, believe that her pros- 
pect was blank, and, doubting her genius and despair- 
ing about her destiny, she begged the Empress's per- 
mission tO' gO' home to her mother's. The Czarina 
eluded the question. 

Whereupon, Catherine came to her own conclusion, 
and, pondering over it, allowed her days to pass in 
impenetrable obscurity for the three years of Eliza- 
beth's declining life. Elizabeth, on her death-bed, ac- 
cording to Lord Keith, the British ambassador, " bade 
the grand duke and the grand duchess farewell with 
deep affection." The French representative, the Duke 
of Breteuil, writes : " The Empress called in the 
grand duke and the grand duchess tO' recommend the 
former to be good to the subjects and win their love; 
she enjoined him to live in union: with his wife, dis- 
coursed at length on her affection for the young Duke 
Paul, assuring the father that his surest and emphatic 
token, of gratitude to her would be in cherishing his 

130 



Ube IRomance of Catberine tbe Great 

boy." (It may be repeated here that a legend asserted 
that Paul was one oi her children, palmed off by 
acquiescence of all parties as the Czarowitch's own. 
This has little probability and less credit — even at 
court.) 

The heir promised everything. When he mounted 
the throne, as Peter III., he was in his thirty-third 
year. Long bridled-in by severe tutors, he gave way 
to extravagance with a merry heart, but inaugurated 
his ascension by a famous ukase about freedom, which 
the Russian nobility of Alexander's time accorded to 
the people. The enthusiasm was soi great that the 
peerage proposed to commemo'rate it by his statue in 
pure gold, which I do not remember as having been 
offered to any sovereign. Nothing came 0)f the sugges- 
tion. At the same time — which, perhaps, better 
deserved a statue, even of pure gold — Peter recalled 
the exiles out of Siberia. 

Among the " ghosts " were Biren and Munich. 
Biren was now seventy-five; his hair was blanched, 
but his face was still hard and stern. In his nine years' 
power, he had dealt out violent death to eleven thou- 
sand creatures, and some of the tortures he applied, 
like those of Nero and Phalaris, were of his own 
device. For three years of sovereign rule he had 
passed twenty in exile, but yet here he was, in the 
town where his throne had been the scaffold, and where 
every man he met had the right to upbraid him for 
the loss of a sire or son ! 

131 



(Ielel)rate^ Crimes ot tbe IRusBlan Court 

Count Munich was the veteran soldier, whom Biren 
had upset for putting young Ivan on the throne while 
a child. He was a fine old fellow of over eighty, 
with his beard and locks undipped. At the gate of the 
capital he was met by thirty or so of his descendants, 
which sight drew tears to eyes never before knowing 
them in any tragedy or desolation. 

The weakling Emperor had the crazy idea of bring- 
ing together this Chimborazo- and Himalaya, separated 
by an ocean of crimes and revolutions. The pigmy 
had three goblets brought him and them, and wished 
all three to quaff a toast. At that, an usher came to 
whisper to the monarch, who left the pair together. 
They stared with hate, and they smiled with scorn, and 
each, setting down the untouched beaker on a board, 
walked out by opposite doors, never more to meet till 
before the Tribunal on high. 

This was not the sole freak of the insane sovereign. 
Every morning there was tittle-tattle concerning him. 
It was averred that he planned to repudiate Catherine, 
and set up a favourite in her stead. She was bound 
to stir in her own defence. 

For three years, in the background, she had made 
any early indiscretions be forgot. She affected piety, 
most touching to the masses, whose religion is totally 
superficial. She gave her hand to the captains with 
whom she chatted, and she enchanted the soldiers by 
speaking and smiling to them on guard. One night, 
in crossing a dark courtyard, a sentinel presented arms. 

132 



Ube IRomance of Catberine tbe Great 

" How could you tell me in the dark? " she inquired. 

" * Mother/ how should I not have recognized 
you ? " replied the man. *' Do you not illumine the 
ground where you pass?" The Oriental trumpeting 
delighted her. 

Maltreated by the Czar when before him, publicly 
disgraced, repudiated in fact, if not formally, she told 
every hearer that the Emperor led her to^ fear bodily 
violence. In public her smile was of sad resignation; 
with the tears she apparently could not restrain, she 
tempered her weapons for the future freedom. Her 
secret partisans, and they were legion, gave out that 
they were astonished to see her alive, day after day; 
they prated of attempts tO' poison her which had failed 
because she had some faithful .servitors, but they 
dreaded that renewed attempts would not be ineffectual. 

These rumours acquired consistency when Paul had 
the young Ivan brought out of twenty years' captivity, 
ten of which were of idiocy, and honoured with a 
private hearing in his confinement. It was a signifi- 
cant step. Adopted by Empress Anna, rudely and 
arbitrarily pushed off the throne by Empress Eliza- 
beth, Ivan was still the natural heir to Peter — sup- 
posing that Peter had no more authentic heir. 

It was easy, therefore, as the mariner tells by atmos- 
pheric signs of the coming tempest — to perceive by 
the earth's trembling that a convulsion was coming, 
when a throne, or, at least, its occupant, would be 
shaken off into a gulf. Conversations became quem- 

133 



Celebrated) Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

lous murmurs, timid questions, and broken phrases; 
feeling that the situation was not tenable, every one 
sought to learn, how his neighbours stood before com- 
mitting himself. The chagrined Empress became seri- 
ous; but soon her countenance gradually assumed the 
calmness under which great minds conceal vast designs. 
The masses quivered from shocks artfully dissemi- 
nated; soldiers were waked untimely by unseen 
drummers who seemed ordered to keep them on the 
alert; mysterious voices shouted : " To' arms ! " in the 
night ; then, in the barracks, parade-ground, and even 
the palace yards, guardsmen ran up together, asking: 
" What has happened to the ' Mother ' ? " 
But all would shake the head and mournfully say : 
" We can do nothing, for there is no leader ! '^ 
They were wrong ; there was a leader — there were 
two, in truth. 

In the army was a gentleman, wholly unknown. 
He possessed a few serfs; and, with brothers in the 
guards, in the ranks, he was aid to the grand master 
of the artillery. He was not only a handsome but 
a gigantic man, of such prodigious strength that he 
could roll up a silver platter like a sheet of paper, and 
could shiver a drinking-glass by opening his two fingers 
thrust within. He had been seen to stop a three- 
horse carriage in full course by grasping the hind axle. 
His name was Gregory Orloff. He was descended 
from the young Strelitz guardsman spared by Peter 
L on that sanguinary day when the Russian Mame- 

134 



Ube IRomance ot (Tatbertne tbe (5reat 

lukes were slain by the thousand, and four thousand 
corpses dangled on trees. His four brothers in the 
Imperial Guards were Ivan, Alexis, Feodor, and 
Vladimir. 

The general, whose aid-de-camp Gregory was, had 
dangled at the apron-strings of the reigning beauty, 
Princess Kurakine; but his attache courted her also. 
The younger man was about to be punished for his 
impudent rivalry by despatch intO' Siberia, when an 
invisible hand stayed the judgment; it was a duch- 
ess's, for Catherine was not yet Empress. The general 
dying, — such deaths occur timely at court, — Orloff 
was made Treasurer of the Artillery Department, 
which place gave him a captaincy by rank, so that he 
could make friends for himself — and his benefactress. 
There were two " friends " whom it was incumbent to 
secure. First, the Colonel of the Ismailof Regiment, 
of which Orlo'ff, handling a cash-box, had bought two 
companies and captains, body and boots. The other 
was the young grand duke's tutor. 

The colonel was Coiunt Cyrille Razumovski, 
brother of the chapel-chorister who wedded the 
Empress Elizabeth. Orloff negotiated with him direct 
to the effect that he promised to be at Catherine's 
orders whenever she issued them. Count Panine was 
the other persona desiderata. He was a Piedmontese, 
and a great philosopher. On being offered titles and 
honours, he, an arch-materialist, replied : " I lack 
cash!'' 

135 



Celebrateb Crtmes ot tbe 1Ru65tan Court 

He was wont to say : " I was born poor ; I have 
seen that nothing but money has value in our world, 
and I want money ; to obtain it, I would set fire to the 
four comers of the town, including the royal palace! 
When I get money enough, I shall retire and live an 
honest man — like any other." 

And, indeed, this Solon, having obtained the cash, 
did retire to his own land, where, we hope, he did 
also live like an honest man. 

Meanwhile, the conspirators, having collected not 
only men wanting cash, but also those longing for titles 
and honours, thought it time to act. 

It was an opportune moment; the Czar talked of 
going off to the war to beat the Danes. He had been 
seen to go down on his knees to a portrait of Freder- 
ick the Great as to a holy picture, and, with uplifted 
hands, vociferated : 

" My master, between us two, we shall conquer the 
world!" 

To arrive at the goal contemplated by Catherine, 
two courses were open; to depose or to assassinate. 

The second course is sure and facile ; but the woman 
was impressionable and sensitive, and it was repug- 
nant to her. She had formally restrained a captain 
of the guards, who asked to be allowed to poignard 
Peter in daylight amid his troops. 

On the other hand, Count Panine, with assistants 
of the prying propensity, had taken a survey of the 
imperial sleeping-apartments, the ways in and the ways 

136 




CZAR PETER III. 



XTbe IRomance of Catberine tbe (Breat 

out, to the most secret arrangements. The original 
plan was to rush in upon him, and, steel at his throat, 
force him to sign his abdication ; that would earn him 
his life, for the time being. 

During the plotting the Czar was at Peterhof. If 
the Empress stayed in town, that fact might cause 
suspicions, so she went to Peterhof as well; but she 
dwelt in a separate summer-house, on a canal to the 
Gulf of Finland, by which she might escape into 
Sweden if the plot should fail. 

The next time Peter went back into the capital 
they were to attack him. But Captain Passek, who 
had urged instant murder, was always impatient and 
headlong; he uttered a word about the business be- 
fore a soldier, who informed his superior. Passek 
was arrested. But for the Piedmontese's precaution, 
ruin would have befallen. He had set a watch on 
every man pledged, and the spy upon Passek notified 
the chiefs of his arrest. It was on the evening of the 
8th July, 1762. At a quarter to ten. Princess Dasch- 
koflf was enlightened, and, as Panine called on her 
at ten, he was instructed. The lady, a woman who 
doubted nothing, cried for immediate action. Raise 
the garrison, and march upon Peterhof! 

But Lord Panine was more timid; he doubly ob- 
jected ; a premature outburst would lose all, and suc- 
cess at St. Petersburg would only be a commencement 
of civil war, as the Emperor would be in a fortified 
place, Cronstadt, with three thousand of his personal 

137 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusslan Court 

defenders, Holsteiners, without reckoning the regular 
troope which would flock to the imperial standard. 
The second objection : since the Empress was not on 
the spot, the plot would lose its strength, as the plotters 
would have none to whom to rally — her presence 
was absolutely necessary. So saying, it being mid- 
night, he went home to sleep. 

The princess was only eighteen, but she dressed 
like a man, and went alone to a trysting-place of the 
conspirators. All five Orloffs were there, enough 
to head as many regicides. She announced Passek's 
arrest, and urged instant action. They agreed in a 
transport. Alexis Orloff was only a private soldier. 
He was nicknamed " the Man with a Scar," from a 
slash across the face. He was strong, agile, and of 
great resolution. He sent the Empress a note, to be 
swallowed if the carrier were caught with it in hand, 
containing just these words : 

"Come! Time presses ! " 

The rest arranged the movement, and that for the 
Empress's flight, if it miscarried. 

At five in the morning, Orloff and his friend Bibi- 
koff, each loading a pistol, exchanged them, swear- 
ing that they would reserve that shot to kill one 
another if the enterprise fell through. 

Princess Daschkoff made no preparations, and being 

asked what she would do, replied that her fate was no 

business of hers, but would concern the executioner. 

The Empress, at Peterhof, lived in an isolated house, 

138 



Zbc IRomance of Catberine tbe Great 

on a canal, as stated, communicating with the Baltic; 
a boat under the window could take her to sea. 

The Czar was at Oranienbaum. 

Some time back, Gregory Orloff, in calling on the 
Empress to confer upon the deed, had brought his 
brother Alexis with him, to familiarize him with the 
grounds as well as to look after his safety. So Alexis 
was able to reach the Empress by employing the pass- 
words. Catherine was surprised to see one brother 
instead of the other. 

" What has gone wrong? " she inquired. 

Alexis handed her the note, and left her reading it. 
She dressed for the journey and ventured intO' the 
gardens. She was bewildered, without knowing 
whither to turn, when a horseman galloped up. He 
pointed to a carriage in waiting, saying : 

" Yours ! " 

She went to it and found in it a confidential adher- 
ent. The vehicle had been in readiness for twO' days, 
by Princess Daschkoff's orders, on a near-by farm. In 
case the Czarina intended to flee by land, there were 
relays of horses for her to reach the frontier. The 
horses were eight in number; the drivers were peas- 
ants who knew nothing of the doings. 

Getting in, the lady asked: "Where do we go?" 

" To St. Petersburg," rejoined Alexis, " where all 
is ready for your Majesty to be proclaimed sole 
ruler!" 

We will leave the pen to the Empress's own hand. 
139 



Cele^)tate^ Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

The story is continued by her in a curious letter, httle 
known. She wrote it to Poniatowski. 

" I was living alone at Peterhof, forgotten by every- 
body, and only domestics about me. My days were 
very restless, knowing what was going on for and 
against me. Early in the morning of the 28th June, 
Alexis Orloff brought me a message, but, after telling 
me to be off, — giving no details, — he left me. With- 
out hesitation, I dressed for travelling, not having 
any maid to assist at my toilet. Going out, I found 
a carriage, behind which Alexis got up like a foot- 
man. Another officer, similarly passing for a lackey, 
opened and shut the door on me. A third met us a 
little out of St. Petersburg. Nearer still, I met the 
eldest Orloff with Prince Bariatinski — the younger. 
He yielded to me his place in his coach, for my horses 
were foundered, and we arrived at the Ismailof regi- 
mental barracks. A dozen men and drummers there 
set up an alarm. But the soldiers who ran up hailed 
me as their deliverer, and kissed the hem of my robe. 
They waylaid a passing priest, bore him in on their 
arms and began to swear allegiance to me on his 
cross. They begged me toi get into a carriage, and 
formed a procession after it, with the good father 
carrying his cross like a standard. Thus we reached 
the Simianovski regimental quarters, where its men 
came out to meet us, shouting : * Long life to the 
Empress ! ' I got out at Kasan Church, where the 



140 



Ube IRomance ot Catbertne tbe Great 

Preobrajenski regiment welcomed me as they hur- 
ried up. 

" ' We crave pardon for being the last to come/ they 
said ; * but our officers curbed us ; here are four of 
them that we held in hand to prove that we are not to 
blame. We wanted to act like our comrades.' 

" The horse-guards came next. They were in such 
a fury of joy as I never beheld. 

" This scene happened between the Hetman's Gar- 
dens and the Kasawski. The horse-guards were 
mounted, with their officers at the head. They hur- 
rahed for the country's deliverance. As I knew that 
my uncle, to whom Paul had given this force, was 
horribly hated, I sent some foot-guards to his house 
for him to keep indoors for fear of accident. But his 
own men had already sent a detachment there, who 
knocked him about and pillaged the house. 

" I went to the new Winter Palace, where the Synod 
and the Senate were assembled, hastily drawing up the 
manifesto and the oath of fidelity. 

" There I alighted and on foot reviewed the troops, 
over fourteen thousand, guards and country regiments. 
At sight of me, their cheers broke forth, echoed by 
those of the innumerable people. I went to the old 
Winter Palace to take the necessary measures and 
finish with the business. The outcome of the consul- 
tation was that I ought to proceed with the troops to 
Peterhof, where Peter would probably be. As there 
were posts along the road, the peasants brought us 

141 



Celebrated (Trtmes of tbe IRusstan Court 

halters as significant of their wishes. Chancellor 
Woronzoff interfered, blaming me for going to town ; 
but they dragged him away to make him take the 
oath of allegiance, — which was my answer. Prince 
Trubetskoi and Count Alexander Schuvaloff came 
to swerve the troops and kill me; but they were also 
prevailed to take the oath in my favour — all without 
any violence. 

" After taking all precautions and sending out cou- 
riers, it being ten o'clock in the evening, I donned 
the Imperial Guards' uniform, and was proclaimed 
colonel, amid inexpressible enthusiasm. I mounted a 
horse, and, leaving just a few men out of each force 
to guard my son, left the town. I went off at the head 
of the military, and marched all night to Peterhof. 
At the Little Monastery, Vice-chancellor Galitzine 
brought me a very flattering letter from Peter. I 
forgot to say that three soldiers, sent out of Peterhof 
to post a manifesto to the people, gave it to me, and 
said: 

" ' Majesty, we were charged with this paper by 
Peter ; but we give it to your Majesty and are glad to 
be able to join our comrades on the right side.* 

" After the first imperial message came the second, 
brought by General Michael Ismailoff. He threw him- 
self at my feet, saying : 

" ' Do you reckon me an honourable man ? ' As I 
assented, he went on : ' It is a pleasure to be among 
sane persons! The Emperor offers to resign. I will 

142 



Ube IRomance ot Catbertne tbe Great 

bring him out after this very free resignation, as I 
wish to spare my country a civil war.' 

" I made no objections to charging him with this 
errand, and he went back upon it. 

*' Peter was surrounded by fifteen hundred Holstein- 
ers, but he freely surrendered the empire and departed 
for Peterhof from Oranienbaum, with his friends, 
St. Peter's Day, 29th June, at noon. I assigned to 
him, as guard, half a dozen officers and some privates. 
While we were all abo'Ut to have dinner, the soldiery 
imagined that Peter had been brought out by Field- 
marshal Trubetskoi to make peace between us; they 
besought the Hetman of the Cossacks, Orloff and 
others passing, to tell me that they had not seen me for 
some three hours and that they feared that ' that old 
rogue Trubetskoi ' was hatching up some pretended 
pact with me, which would ruin the lot of us. Empress 
and followers. 

" ' But we will make rags of them first ! ' they 
cried, which was their very expression. 

" I bade Trubetskoi get into the carriage, while I 
reviewed the brave fellows on foot. He went back 
to town frightened, while I was acclaimed. After 
this, I sent Alexis Orloff, with four selected officers 
and some few gentle and reasonable soldiers to trans- 
port the deposed Czar to a place called Ropcha, away 
from Peterhof, out of the way, hut most pleasant; 
while honest and comfortable lodgings at Schlussel- 
burg were made ready. They were to take time and 

143 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusslan Court 

provide relays of horses for the road. But kind 
Heaven otherwise disposed of matters. Peter fell so 
ill from fright, that, after ailing three days, he died 
on the fourth. He drank excessively, for he had full 
liberty of all save liberty. All he had called for from 
me was his negro servant, his violin, and his pet dog. 
They were sent him. His colic was carried by sym- 
pathy into his brain, and the two days' fever was 
followed by great weakness, and, despite the physi- 
cians, he passed away. He was so deeply hated that 
I was afraid that the officers around him might have 
poisoned him. It was found, though, that nothing 
but internal inflammation and a stroke of apoplexy 
carried him off." 

This is the official report which the great Catherine 
put on paper for Russia through Poniatowski. It 
was all that any one was allowed to tell or to believe 
in her reign and up to the end of Nicholas's. 

But what really occurred? 

Let us oppose the true account with that with 
which the imperial actress hoodwinked the eighteenth 
century's eyes, but which has been torn away, piece 
by piece. 

As she stated, Catherine was carried off by the eight 

horses. On the road she met her French hair-dresser, 

who did not know what had gone on, but thought 

that she was being removed to a nunnery by Peter's 

orders, at last. But she stuck her head out and called 

him to follow. He did so, but believed they were all 

144 



trbe IRomance of Catberine tbe Great 

going to Siberia. She entered her future capital thus, 
in the eight-horse coach, accompanied by her lieu- 
tenant, her hair-dresser, and a confidential maid. So 
far, the Empress's recital and truth run side by 
side. 

The revolution had been accomplished without any 
one thinking to inform the Czar. All had rallied 
around the Empress. Still, a barber named Bressan, 
attached to the Emperor, disguised a valet as a 
peasant, and sent him off to Peterhof. He carried a 
note for the Czar alone. 

During this, under the Empress's order, an officer 
took a numerous escort to find the young Prince 
Imperial sleeping in another house. Waked up in the 
night, like little Czar Ivan, and seeing soldiers around 
him, he was so deeply frightened that his guardian 
Panine could not quiet him. He was taken to his 
mother in his night-clothes. As he was the lawful 
heir, she had need of him. She carried him out on 
the palace balcony, where the cheers increased and 
hats were tossed on high, and cries arose for " Paul 
the First ! " But at the same time, the crowd, repulsed 
at one point, opened without any tumult. It was for 
a funeral procession. The low explanation sounded : 
"It is the Czar!" 

The pompous and sombre pageant had already 
traversed the principal streets of St. Petersburg, and, 
crossing the Palace Place amid profound silence, went 
afar. The funeral guards had their helmets craped, 

145 



(Ielebrate^ Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

and carried torches. Whilst the catafalque held all 
attention, the young grand duke disappeared. 

What was this dead body, carried to- the grave with 
so much honour? Nobody ever knew. The Princess 
Daschkoff, questioned about the event, laughed and 
replied : 

" Confess that we took our precautions fully ! " 

This show had twO' results : to prepare the people 
for the Emperor's death, and to make them forget 
the grand duke. 

An army drunken with excitement surrounded the 
palace. But the joy was leavened with a fear skilfully 
kept alive by the Catherinites. It was whispered that 
twelve bravoes had left Oranienbaum, after swearing 
to Peter that they would kill the Empress and her son. 
The soldiers believed that their " Mother " was ex- 
posed to much danger in a palace with twenty outlets 
on the public square and its vast side bathed in the 
river. They loudly clamoured that she should be 
housed in a place where it could be surrounded by 
watchers. The Empress consenting, she was con- 
veyed tO' a smaller house, the Wooden Palace, to which 
she crossed amid cheers and shouts of joy and de- 
votion ; and which was immediately engirt by a triple 
row of bayonets. All these soldiers had thrown off 
their pigtails and uniforms in the Prussian style, and 
were treated to' satiety with brandy and beer. Now 
and then there was merry uproar: it was at a sol- 
dier joining them, still in his German suit; his 

146 



XTbe IRomance ot Catberine tbe Great 

coat was rent to shreds and his helmet was made a 
football. 

Finally the Church arrived, to sanctify the revolu- 
tion, as it was soon going to bless the regicide. The 
clergy, bearing the ornaments for the consecration, 
the crown, imperial globe, and ancient books, slowly 
crossed through the military files, its majestic sight 
imposing respect, and entered the palace. In a quarter 
of an hour the declaration was made that Catherine 
was consecrated as Catherine the Second. She came 
forth amid the cheering in the guards' uniform and 
on horseback. The enthusiasm became frenzy. She 
had been perfectly equipped, but she had no sword- 
knot. 

" Who will lend me his sword-tag? " she asked. 

Five or six officers began to disengage their sword- 
knots, but a young lieutenant was the quickest and 
supplied the lady. He saluted, and was about to ride 
back to his place when the steed, from its habit as a 
file-horse, sidled up to the Empress's. She noted his 
efforts to control the rebel, and that he was a handsome 
blade. 

" Your charger has more sense than you," she said; 
" he knows where his master's fortune rests ! What 
is your name? " 

" Potemkine, Majesty." 

" Stay where you are, Potemkine, and be my aid- 
de-camp ! " 



147 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

This was the same Potemkine who was, in time, 
her all-powerful premier. 

The newly crowned one went back to the palace, 
where she dined at an open window, while the forces 
filed past. Several times she raised her glass and 
drank to the army, which elicited cheers. The review 
over, she mounted again and led the forces away. 

Potemkine was not asked after. Orloff had ex- 
tended to him a hint that promotion to be an imperial 
aid depended on something more than a sword-knot. 

Leaving the Empress to go into the campaign, let us 
look into Oranienbaum. 

The Czar had determined to keep St. Peter's Day 
at Peterhof. He felt in utter security. Passek's 
arrest had been related to him, but he had merely 
remarked : 

" It is some mad fellow ! *' 

In the morning he started with a merry company; 
but at Peterhof the inhabitants were profoundly sad. 
At daybreak the Empress's flight had been discovered. 
She was vainly searched for till a sentinel declared 
that he had seen two ladies steal out. But those who 
came from St. Petersburg, having left before the revolt 
and Catherine's arrival, reported that all was quiet 
there. But the flight appeared serious enough to be 
repeated to the master. A chamberlain started, but he 
met on the road a courier from the Czar, his aid, 
Gudowitch. The castle messenger entrusted his mes- 
sage to him as he preferred not to deliver it ; the mili- 

148 




COUNT POTEMKINE. 



Ube IRomance of Catberine tbe Great 

tary man rode back and stopped the imperial coach. 
But the inmate ordered the coach to advance, when the 
aid rode up to the window and whispered : 

" Sire, the Empress has fled in the night, and is 
beHeved to be at St. Petersburg ! " 

" What a piece of nonsense ! " commented Peter. 

But the rider added a post-word in a still lower 
voice, which induced the hearer to turn pale and order 
the lackeys to let him out. It was remarked that his 
knees knocked as he stepped down. He leaned on the 
aid's arm and questioned him. As they happened to 
be at a part of the park open to the road, he said to 
the ladies : 

" Alight and go straight to the house, where I shall 
join you, unless I am there before you." 

The ladies obeyed, but in a tremor ; they had heard 
only fragments and were lost in conjectures. The 
Czar entered the emptied coach and ordered Gudo- 
witch to gallop alongside the door, and the coachman 
to drive to the house at full speed. He ran into the 
Empress's suite, as if he had not believed the news, and 
searched all about, prying everywhere and probing 
the panels with his cane. He was thus employed 
when the ladies arrived in still more disarray. He 
called out to them from the window, with some terror 
amid his agitation : 

" She has gone ! I told you that she is capable of 
any evil act ! " 

All kept silence, judging that the still dark situation 
149 



Celebrated CrimeB ot tbe IRusslan Court 

was ominous. Word arose that a young French 
lackey had arrived from the town with news of the 
Empress. 

Bidden to enter, the pert footman gaily cried: 

" Oh, the Empress is not lost ! She is at St. Peters- 
burg, and the St. Peter's Day is going to be mag- 
nificent ! " He thought he was bringing welcome 
news. 

" How so? ** inquired the Czar. 

" Because there is going to be a grand review of 
all the military ! '' 

This terrible intelligence doubled the dismay. A 
peasant arrived with many bows and pulls at his hair. 
He drew a paper from his bosom and handed it to 
the Czar. This was the disguised valet, charged to 
take a message out of St. Petersburg for the monarch 
himself. 

The note ran : " The Imperial Household Guards 
have revolted, and the Empress is at their head. It is 
nine o'clock, and she is entering Kasan Church. The 
populace follow the movement, and loyal subjects do 
not show themselves." 

" You see, I was right," observed the autocrat. 

Chancellor Woronzoff, uncle to the imperial favour- 
ite and to Princess Daschkoff, having thus a footing 
in each camp, offered to gO' to town and negotiate. 
His offer was accepted, and he set off instantly, but, 
as seen, it was only to go over to the rebellion. Only, 
being a prudent man, he settled that he should not be 

ISO 



TLbc IRomance ot (Tatbertne tbe (Breat 

obliged to follow the military movements, but be put 
under arrest, with an officer at his door. As he had 
sworn allegiance to Catherine, he was her friend; as 
he was under arrest, he was not Peter's foe. 

Peter was preparing for the storm. He had fifteen 
hundred Holsteiners on whom he could depend. In 
eyesight was Cronstadt, impregnable. He began by 
ordering his Holsteiners to come up quickly and with 
their field-guns. Hussars were sent out toi scour the 
roads by which the enemy might debouch from St. 
Petersburg. Couriers rode into the villages to muster 
the countrymen; and messengers went forth to all the 
military quarters adjacent, to bring all the soldiery to 
Oranienbaum. 

Over all the forces he appointed the generalissimo 
in the chamberlain who had brought the tidings of the 
outbreak. These measures taken, — as though his 
head was incapable of more than one sane idea for 
a time, — he issued the most fanciful orders : the 
Empress was to be slain at sight; his own regiment 
was to be brought from the capital; he raced about 
or he sat down abruptly. He dictated manifestoes 
against his consort, full of scathing insults; he had 
them transcribed by copyists and dispersed by hussars 
in all directions; then, noticing his Prussian uniform, 
he cast it off and donned the former Russian one, 
loading the breast with his own decorations. 

The court was prostrated, in the gardens. 

Suddenly Peter roared with glee; they had ushered 
151 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

in to him old Count Munich, who, for his saving him 
out of Siberia, came to him with gratitude — or from 
a Hngering spark of ambition. The succour was so 
unexpected that the Emperor flung himself into the 
aged warrior's arms, and cried : 

" Save me, Munich, I have nobody to rely on but 
you!" 

But the old war-dog was not excitable; he had 
looked coldly at the situation. 

" Sire," he said, " in a few hours the Czarina will 
be here with twenty thousand men and formidable 
artillery. Neither Peterhof nor Oranienbaum can 
hold out. However steady the troops may be, their 
resistance will only lead to your Majesty and adherents 
being butchered. Safety and victory are at Cronstadt, 
and nowhere else." 

" Explain yourself, Munich ! " appealed the ruler. 

" Cronstadt has a numerous garrison, and by it 
is the important fleet. Such a raking-together as the 
Empress has surrounded herself with will soon dis- 
perse ; or, if not, we shall meet on equal terms — you 
with your Holsteiners, the fleet, and the garrison." 

This deliverance restored calm to the besieged; a 

general went over to Cronstadt, whence he sent his 

aid to report that the garrison stood firm and would 

die for their Father, if he would trust himself to 

them-. From his panic, the poor idiot passed into 

boundless conceit. He reviewed his Holsteiners, and, 

enchanted with their brave front, chattered : 

152 



Zbc IRomance ot datberine tbe (Breat 

" You must not quit without at least seeing the 
foe!" 

Munich, who was for immediate retreat, had com- 
manded the two yachts to be made ready, and vainly 
tried to embark the Czar. Unfortunately for his 
plans and for those to fortify the heights on the 
coasts, an aid arrived at eight o'clock, preceding by 
a little the Empress, with twenty thousand men, 
marching on the imperial summer resort, and only 
a few miles off. No one wanted to " see the enemy " 
any more closely. Followed by all the court, the 
despot rushed to the landing, where they tumbled into 
the rowboats, yelling: 

" Take us out to the yachts ! " 

"Are you not coming?" the Emperor asked a 
favourite courtier. 

" Pray excuse me. Sire, for the wind is out of the 
north, and I have no overcoat," replied the tender 
man, who, in another two hours, was bowing to the 
Czarina, and relating jocosely how the embarkation 
had been managed. 

But in the morning Admiral Talitzine had gone 
over to Cronstadt in an open boat, forbidding his boat- 
men to say whence he came. 

He was obliged to await the governor's permission 
before he could land. But, hearing his rank and that 
he came alone, the governor came out, and, allowing 
the landing, asked the news. 

" I have nothing positive," replied the naval chief. 
153 



Celebrated Ctimcs of tbe "Kussian Court 

" I was at my country-house when I heard of some stir, 
and thought I ought to come here and take my place 
on the fleet." 

The governor beHeved this, and went indoors. 
TaHtzine at once suggested to some soldiers whom he 
assembled to arrest the commandant, for the Emperor 
was dethroned and the Empress consecrated in his 
stead. All who sided with her would be richly re- 
warded. If they handed over Cronstadt to the Em- 
press, their fortune was ensured. All followed him; 
the governor was apprehended, and the garrison and 
marines turned out to hear the admiral. He ha- 
rangued them into swearing fealty to the new ruler. 
By this time the two pleasure craft were in sight. 
The Czar's presence might undo all the gain. TaH- 
tzine had the alarm-bell rung. Two hundred gunners 
stood to their pieces along the ramparts, and, with 
lighted matches, waited for the targets. The imperial 
yacht arrived at ten in the evening and prepared to 
set the illustrious passenger ashore. But the ship was 
challenged from the fort. 

" The Czar ! " was the answer. 

*' There is no longer a Czar! " responded Talitzine, 
" and if you forge another fathom ahead, I shall 
order that you be blown out of the water ! " 

The hubbub was frightful on board the imperial 
yacht : the captain believed he heard the balls already 
whistle around him, and shouted back : 



154 



Ube IRomance of Catbertne tbe (3reat 

" Hold your fire ! we are making off, are we not ? 
Give us time to go about, can't ye? " 

The vessels turned and fled, pursued by shouts of 
" Long live the Empress Catherine! " 

The Emperor was weeping and wailing : " I see 
that the plot was a wide one ! " 

He tottered down into the cabin, more dead than 
alive. Out of range, the yachts lay to, but the Em- 
peror could not decide on any course. So they ran 
home between the forts and the other coast. That 
took the night. 

Munich trod the deck calmly, and asked himself : 

" What the deuce tempted me into this galley? " 

In the meantime, the Czarina's troops had reached 
Peterhof, where they expected to have the Holsteiners 
to combat. But, seeing the Emperor abandon them, 
they had levanted likewise; all the defenders were 
some countrymen armed with flails and forks. Orloff, 
being the scout, did not balk at the numbers of the 
mujiks, but charged them with the flat of the sword, 
and dispersed them to the tune of " The Empress for 
ever!" 

The main body coming up, the Empress trium- 
phantly walked into the house which she had quitted 
only twenty-four hours previously as a fugitive. 

On the yacht, Peter had been conferring with 
Munich and begging his counsel. 

" Field-marshal, I ought to have followed your 
advice, and I repent not having done so. But you have 

155 



Celebtatc& Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

seen so many extremities that I wish you to tell me 
what tO' do now." 

" Sire, nothing is lost if you will listen to me. At 
once let us clap on sail, put the sweeps out, and so 
force the passage of the forts. Arriving at Revel, 
we will take a man-of-war and go to Prussia, where 
your army of eighty thousand men is to be found; 
with them return, and, in six weeks, I guarantee to 
your Majesty that he will be more mighty than here- 
tofore." 

Courtiers, crept in to hear what might be life or 
death, remained to hope or dread. 

" But," ventured one as mouthpiece, " the men are 
too weary to do much rowing." 

" When they are weary," replied Munich, " we will 
take the oars ourselves ! " 

The prospect had no welcome among the enervated 
gadflies. They asserted the situation to be far from 
desperate; so mighty a monarch ought not to flee 
from his domains; it was impossible that all Russia 
had risen against him, and the upshot of the rising 
would only end in reconciliation with his Czarina. 
The master embraced this picture, decided on recon- 
ciliation, and was disembarked at Oranienbaum, con- 
vinced that he had nothing to do but pardon. On 
the waterside he found the servants in woe, and their 
consternation revived all his fears. 

The Empress was marching upon Oranienbaum. 



156 



XTbe IRomance ot Catbertne tbc (5reat 

He had a fleet horse saddled, planning to disguise 
himself and gallop off into Poland. 

But one of the ladies offered to be envoy to the 
Empress and try to induce her to let him go to Hol- 
stein. The domestics fell on their knees and wailed: 
" Do not trust her ! she will be the death of our 
Father ! " He would not listen to them, and the 
woman waved them away, saying: 

" Wretches, what interest have you in frightening 
the ' Little Father ' ? '' 

Peter went farther in the retreat than she; he 
ordered the little fortress to be battered down and the 
cannon dismounted, with which he had played at the 
war-game. Munich, as a veteran, was maddened by 
this, and tore out his white locks. 

" If you do not know how to die at the head of 
your troops, like an Emperor," he sneered, " go out 
to them with a crucifix in your hand — they will spare 
you then, while I do a soldier's duty." 

But, no doubt because his resolve was bad, the despot 
persisted ; but he wrote a letter to the Empress, offer- 
ing share in the power and reconciliation. Receiving 
no response, he wrote another, begging a pension and 
a harbour at Holstein. Then, Catherine sent him a 
form of abdication — it was almost on file in Russian 
headquarters — by General Ismailoff. The bearer was 
charged to inform the fallen Majesty that the lady 
had persons in her train so exasperated against him 



IS7 



delebrateb Crtmes of tbe IRussian Court 

that she would not answer for his Hfe, if he did not 
sign. 

Ismailoff entered the imperial presence, accompanied 
by only one servant, but he promptly said, on the 
Czar wavering: 

" Then I arrest you in the Empress's name ! " 

" But I am going to sign," whined the autocrat, in 
haste. 

But it was required that the deed of renunciation 
should be in his hand, and he executed it and, sighing, 
appended his signature. He made a note on another 
sheet of paper : ''I desire to have sent to me my dog 
Mopre, Narcisse, my negro, my violin, some ro- 
mances, and my German Bible." 

All was not finished, for Ismailoff had the duty to 
deprive him of the grand cordon of the principal 
Russian order of knighthood, to humble him. Then 
he was taken in a carriage to Peterhof. As he passed 
through the bodies of soldiery, they taunted him with' 
cheers for " Catherine ! " 

On arriving at the main staircase, the Emperor 
stepped out first, and then his favourite, Elizabeth 
Woronzoff. Scarcely had she alighted, than the sol- 
diers buffeted her about, snatched off her decorations 
and rent her garments. Gudowitch following, they 
hooted him, but he returned the compliment by call- 
ing them traitors, cowards, and scoundrels. A mob 
of soldiers bore him away as they had Lady Woron- 
zoff. 

158 



Uhc IRomance of Catbertne tbe Great 

So the Emperor had to totter up the stairs alone, 
weeping with rage. Ten or a dozen soldiers fol- 
lowed him closely and ordered him to throw off his 
things, despoiling him of his sword, which had been 
allowed him, and his coat. But they threatened to 
remove all, and he was for ten minutes exposed to 
the ridicule of the horde, in bare feet and shirt. At 
last some one tossed an old dressing-gown upon him, 
and let him drop into a chair, where he hung his 
head, stopped up his ears, and covered his eyes, as if 
not to know what went on around him. 

In the interval, the Empress was holding audience 
with a new court. All who had been grovelling to the 
deposed one the last three days were fawning to 
her. All the Woronzoff family were offering homage. 
The Empress took the ornaments Elizabeth Woronzoff 
had been stripped of, and gave them to her sister, 
who accepted them eagerly without any demur. 

Munich came to tender his submission in his blunt 
way, saying: 

" Upon my word, madame, I have been a long while 
coming to the opinion which was the man, you, or 
Lord Peter, and as it has decisively appeared that 
' Thou art the Man ! ' I come to you." 

" Munich, you tried to fight with me! " accused the 
Empress. 

" I own to it, but that's my trade. But my duty 
now is to fight for you." 

" But you do not allude tO' the advice you can 
159 



Cclebrate^ Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

afford me, count, the fruit of the period you have 
spent in warfare and — exile ! " 

" My life being yours, the experience is yours like- 
wise." 

The same day Catherine returned to St. Petersburg, 
where it was more triumph than her march-out. On 
the following day she despatched the imperial captive 
to Ropcha, under Alexis's command, followed by the 
" four selected officers " and " the gentle and reason- 
able men," to use her words. Among these were 
Teploff, the youngest of the Bariatinski princes, and 
Potemkine, the officer who lent sword-knots. Five 
or six days after the Emperor was lodged, Teploff 
and Alexis Orloff, leaving Potemkine and Bariatinski 
in the outer room, entered the parlour, and hinted, 
as the prisoner was about to breakfast, that they 
would be thankful for the honour of eating with 
him. According to Russian table manners, they 
began by eating salted appetizers and drinking brandy. 

Alexis presented the Emperor with a glass of spirits. 
As they had eaten bread and salt together, according 
to another Russian belief, guest and host were sacred ; 
so that the latter might take the libation without 
distrust. But it was drugged; for at the end of a 
short space he suffered atrocious pain. Out of the 
same bottle Orloff wished to force on him another 
draught. But Peter refused, and there was a conflict 
between them, during which the Czar called for help. 

As before said, Alexis was of prodigious strength. 

1 60 




COUNT ORLOFF. 



XTbe IRomance of Catbcdne tbc 6teat 

He threw himself upon the host, bore him back upon 
the bed, held him down under his knee, and throttled 
him while, it is averred, Teploff stabbed him with 
a heated ramrod. The screams overheard weakened, 
and finally died away. 

Peter III., entrusted to " four selected officers and 
some gentle and reasonable guards," died, if you 
believe Catherine, an Empress, " of inflammation and 
apoplexy." 

The same day a messenger broke in upon her 
dinner with a missive which warranted such haste. 
Coming from Alexis Orloff, it was thus couched : 

" Empress, our beloved Mother : — How can I 
tell you what has happened ? It is truly fatality ! We 
went in to see your husband, and, taking wine with 
himi, it put us in such a drunken mood that words 
arose — and we were so hotly insulted that we came 
to blows. Suddenly we saw him drop dead. What 
are we to do? Take our heads, if you wish; or, dear 
Mother, think that what is past cannot be undone, and 
forgive us our mishap. Alexis Orloff." 

This " Clement Mother " not only forgave Orloff, 
but made him a count of the Roman Empire. 

The imperial victim to " the mishap through drink," 
lay in state at the Newsk Monastery, and was buried 
there. It was remarked that the neck was scratched 
and the face black ; but the question was not how he 

i6i 



Celebtateb Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

died, but was he dead? " The False Demetrius " was 
in mind, and Pugetchef was foreshadowed. 

Not infrequently the remorse of the great crowned 
homicides who employ murderers takes the form of 
treating these bravos meanly. This cannot be said 
of Catherine. Her crime was not hushed up, for, 
when Voltaire styled her " the Northern Semiramis," 
he alluded to the original Empress slaying Ninus by 
poison. 

Sir James Harris, the English envoy to St. Peters- 
burg, a grave statistician, for he was correspondent 
for a mercantile house, wrote: 

" From 1762 to 1783, the Orloff family have drawn 
from the state seventeen million rubles, as well as 
profited by forty-five thousand serfs." He adds of Po- 
temkine, the man well paid for his sword-knot, " In 
two years of favour, he received thirty-seven thousand 
serfs in Russia, and in mansions, plate, and jewels, 
nine millions of rubles, to say nothing of appointments 
all of cash income; and he was created Prince of the 
Holy Roman Empire, dating from three generations." 
But the '^ protected " lord did not lose favour or die 
till 1 79 1, nine years subsequently. At the rate of two 
years, then, he must have lorded it over 150,000 serfs, 
and enjoyed more than fifty millions ! It is true that 
he made some return to his munificent mistress. 

She owed to him the Tauridus (Taurus) Palace, 

in memory of the campaign in the Crimea, when he 

annexed that province to Russia. The astonishing 

162 



Zbc IRomance ot datbertne tbe Great 

point about the structure is not the magnificent furni- 
ture, the marbles, the lakes of goldfish, or the golden 
peacock which expands its tail, or yet the gold cock 
which crows, — they were removed to the Hermitage 
(with the golden tree), — but that it should have been 
built — a palace covering six acres with its park — in 
the midst of a capital, and Catherine should not know 
anything about it! Potemkine, who had trees carried 
about in winter so as to plant them daily at the 
country-houses where his mistress stopped for a night, 
and who presented her in mid- January with baskets of 
cherries costing ten thousand rubles ! — he had ac- 
customed her to surprises — but with what scrupulous- 
ness that secret was kept — in Russia ! One evening, 
the new Aladdin invited the Empress to a festival in a 
spot which she only knew as being a swamp. But, 
blazing with lights, flowing with music, and spangled 
with blowing flowers, she was dazzled by a fairy 
palace. 

We had the luck to enjoy the acquaintance of his 
niece, the Countess Braninka, in whose arms he died ; 
it is she who enables us to give some particulars 
which historians did not kno^v. 

But if only an upstart prince, he lived in princely 
fashion. I have seen the silk factory where he took 
all the product, wearing silk hose only once and mak- 
ing presents with the surplus. But he is credited with 
disbursing a million rubles annually. In serving the 
country, his sword-knot saw fire : not only did he win 

163 



(relebrate& (Trtmes ot tbe IRussian Court 

Crimea, but he fought the Turks in person, carrying 
three of their fortified towns by storm. In 1791, he 
returned to the capital to find that he was really re- 
placed by Zuboff. That was nothing, if he had still 
his old influence, but the imperial lady — now imperi- 
ous — did everything contrary to his suggestions. 
Wishing to continue a war, he started for the Crimea 
to persuade her against signing peace. But, at Jassy, 
he learnt that she had yielded, and he took it to heart, 
for he died there, stopping his carriage to get out and 
lie down on a cloak by the roadside. 

Michelet is severe toward " the German Adventu- 
ress," but he dissected her from his point of abhorrence 
for her wrecking Poland. In the same way as Peter 
the Great could not hope to save Russia without slay- 
ing Alexis, so Catherine could not continue Peter's 
work without freeing herself of Peter III. We cannot 
be accused of partiality toward monarchs, but we do 
not think that the historian — and the romancist is 
only the popular historian — has any right to be 
unfair toward kings, as kings. A crime is a crime, 
but there are extenuating circumstances before the 
bar of posterity. You do not class on the same page 
Tell killing Gessler to deliver Switzerland, and a 
brute murdering a cook to steal a sausage. At St. 
Petersburg, measure the work accomplished by Peter 
III.'s widow, and render her justice — she is Cather- 
ine THE GREAT. 



164 



CHAPTER IX. 

A ROMANCE OF THE RUSSIAN BASTILE 
(1764) 

About the year 1764, there was a queen of beauty 
in the festivals at Pisa, Florence, and Leghorn, called 
the Princess Helena Tarakanoff. The belle was but 
twenty. She was undoubtedly lovely, and she en- 
joyed an unlimited income. She had come, in child- 
hood, from St. Petersburg to Florence, and throve as 
a northern plant might be expected to do under the 
blessed sun of the country where Michelangelo and 
Raphael flourished. Nothing official was known about 
her, and so her charm was augmented by the mystery 
enveloping her, like those clouds enhancing the god- 
desses, when they deigned to appear among bewitched 
mortals. 

Two persons discovered that she was daughter of 
the Empress Elizabeth of Russia, one seeking her 
through ambition and the other by hatred. They were 
Prince Charles Radziwill and Prince Gregory Orloff. 

Radziwill, Prince Palatine of Wilna, a deadly foe 
of the Russians, appointed governor of Lithuania, 
in 1762, by the Elector Augustus HL of Saxony, had 

16s 



(Telebtateb Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

set himself up as candidate against Prince Poniatowski 
to the Polish throne. But his ambition soared higher 
still. He bore in mind the ancient grandeur of Poland, 
when it gave sovereigns to Bohemia and Hungary, 
acquired half Western Prussia, with rule over the 
eastern portion, and, joining Courland to all that, 
united Livonia to it, until it annexed Moscow. 

The same Moscow as the Polacks took in 1611 
might be retaken in 1765, whereon Radziwill could don 
the crown of the Jagellons and Monomaches. You 
will grant that it was a lofty project; but, as he was 
as great a politician as soldier, he dreamt of another 
matter. If he could win the Princess Tarakanoff and 
become her wedded husband, this alliance to the im- 
perial daughter, with Moscow his seat, would facilitate 
his assumption of power over the Muscovite. Her 
birth should be publicly proclaimed, of course. The 
poor lady was unaware of these schemes ; all she saw 
was a count-palatine, still young, handsome, and ele- 
gant, whose attentions she might receive. The rumour 
soon spread that Charles was about to marry the 
Princess Tarakanoff, daughter of the Empress Eliz- 
abeth. It spread so widely and so far as to reach 
the Russian court, where the Empress Catherine II. 
was reigning. 

Catherine was given cause for dread, for she 
divined Prince Charles's combination. Had she all 
in vain overturned hindrances, only for them to re- 
vive? She had let Peter III. be strangled, the young 

166 



H IRomance ot tbe IRusBtan Basttle 

Ivan be assassinated, and yet here started out of 
Italy a pretender to her throne, of whom she had 
never had a thought! If Helena had been in Russia 
or in the vicinity, where she could stretch out her 
hand! But how strike in the Grand Duke of Flor- 
ence's territory? 

She had to apply to her good friends, the Orloffs, 
who were never embarrassed. 

Catherine let transpire her intention to support 
Stanislaus Poniatowski for King of Poland, a propo- 
sition sure to draw Radziwill back to Warsaw, so 
that he must leave the fair princess without defence. 

All Orloff had to do was to take three ships and 
go to Italy. The ostensible aim of his voyage was 
to buy art objects, pictures, statues, and the like, and 
engage artists. The hidden aim was not to be dis- 
closed till the proper time. Orloff sailed with his 
golden argosies. They were lucky, for, without mis- 
hap, they cast anchor in Leghorn Bay. 

It was July, when the beaux and belles of Tuscany 
had gone to the seaside to inhale the Mediterranean 
breezes and take the briny baths. Curiosity was vividly 
aroused by the advent of Gregory Orloff, the man who 
had taken the principal part in the 1762 revolution, 
and was the great Catherine's favourite. He had some 
blood-stains on him, but it was Alexis, and not 
Gregory, Orloff who had had that little dispute with 
the Emperor Peter III., ending with the noble's neck- 
cloth being tied too tightly for free breathing around 

167 



Celebrate& Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

the Czar's neck; but, in politics, a crime so happily 
succeeding is scarcely a crime at all. Why should 
not man overlook what Heaven did not hasten to 
punish ? 

So Gregory Orloff was welcomed, made much of, 
caressed and feasted. He could bend iron bars like 
" Porthos," roll up a silver dish like Augustus of 
Saxony, and scatter coin like a Duke of Bucking- 
ham. He had the greatest success among the Floren- 
tines. But he had not come there to court the Biancas, 
since it was for his fair fellow countrywoman, the 
Princess Tarakanoff, for whom were his cares, pres- 
ents, and assiduity. Soon the tale went the rounds 
that the Empress's favourite was liable to be un- 
faithful to her Majesty, for a lady almost as illus- 
trious, younger, and lovelier. He revealed to the dupe 
matters of which she was ignorant. 

He had spoken of an origin which, cross-barred 
though it was, might have more weight in true Russian 
eyes than Catherine's marriage with Peter HI., which 
was violently broken off. Who was this Catherine, 
when one came to reason upon it? A princess of 
Anhalt-Zerbst, merely a German, who had not a drop 
of Romanoff blood in her. As for young Paul I., 
there were such doubts about him that he was on 
the same shelf as Helena herself. There were doubts 
about Elizabeth, too. In any event, the point was to 
meet with a hand strong enough to hold her on her 
throne after putting her there. Talking of the strong 

i68 



H 'Romance of tbe IRusstan Basttle 

hand, Orloff's manual power was celebrated. In his 
palm the princess was as a feather. And the advo- 
cate's eyes were so tender in discussing politics, that 
it was very evident that, in pleading for her, he was 
pleading his own cause. Orloff did not conceal his 
ambition. He bitterly inveighed against the Empress 
Catherine. He had so well served her that he had 
a right to claim public recompense, and, at the least, 
she ought to have raised him higher than a mere 
captaincy in the Royal Guards. 

Helena was not ambitious, but she was a coquette. 
Orloff happened to carry in his baggage an imperial 
Russian diadem. This ought to have been in the 
royal treasury in Moscow, and it might be marvelled 
how he came to own it. In showing the gem to 
Helena, Orloff set it on her fair head, and it fitted 
as if made for it. The princess tried to fancy how 
she would look in the rest of the coronation outfit. 

She had very properly spoken of her engagement 
with Prince Radziwill. But what was the eventuality 
in that direction? He would have to be elected King 
of Poland, vanquish the Russians, and earn a victory 
so complete that it would open Moscow gates to him. 
In short, a triple miracle, and Providence was not 
providing miracles to benefit Poland any longer. 

If the princess began to listen to the tempter with 
doubt, she now listened with the mute silence of hope. 
Orloff, artful tantalizer that he was, left her dandling 
the Imperial diadem, a brilliant reality in the day and 

169 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

a splendid dream in the night. And all this court- 
ship passed among balls, galas, regattas, under the 
blazing sun, amid artistic enchantments, nature's bless- 
ings and aesthetic masterpieces. Orloff had become 
the hero for all the magnificoes. The black Italian 
eyes were fastened on him with envy and desire. But 
the only gaze precious to him was the mysterious 
young princess's. 

Soon it was published that the Russian, in acknowl- 
edgment of the generous reception, was going to 
repay it with a glorious ridotto. It was loudly said 
that it was in honour of the beauties of Florence and 
Leghorn, but in a whisper it was averred that Orloff's 
fair compatriot would be the queen of the fete. Great 
preparations were certainly made on the Russian flag- 
ship. At last the occasion was officially announced. 
The invitations were so cleverly comprehensive that 
no one felt slighted. 

The appointed day was anxiously awaited. The 
ship, on account of her being moored in deep water, 
outside the roads, was a blaze of lights and port-fires. 
It might be likened to Cleopatra's galley. In skiffs, 
ornamented with flowers, all the boatmen, in their 
best clothes, stood up to welcome their fares going 
out to the frigate. The flotilla was freighted with 
silk, satin, and gauze, while jewels sparkled as if it 
were a Wedding of the Sea to the Haven. 

The cutter of the war-ship's captain led the fleet; 
under a purple awning lounged the Princess Helena 

170 



H IRomance of tbe IRusslan Basttle 

on Persian carpets — like an imperial child. Orloff 
waited for her at the ship's side, at the gangway. 
The merrymaking was extravagant, and lasted till 
dawn. The princess had all the honours. When the 
fresh morning breeze arose, '' the Hving flowers," — 
the ladies, — shivering like the blossoms in Dante's 
verse, draped themselves in their plush-lined mantles, 
to be rowed shoreward. Princess Tarakanoff lingered 
to the last. Of what was the dainty plotter babbling : 
Love or Ambition ? As the belated creature was about 
to step down the swinging steps, they were hauled up 
and swung afar out at the yard-arm's end. She was 
drawn back. She felt the bound of the ship released, 
like a charger given the rein. Wind and tide were 
imparting a strong impulsion to the ship. Her anchor 
had been heaved up and the sails unfurled. She was 
well under way when the gazelle realized that she 
was entrapped. The princess was a prisoner. 

At once the gallant cavalier became the sombre 
executioner for the ferocious Catherine. The lady 
in ball dress, lace, and gems was consigned to be a 
pariah of that world in little — a man-of-war. She 
had no place to lay her head, for there is no room 
on the floating microcosm for one " not numbered on 
the books." Helena was refused food and water, for 
the orders were strict. Finally, in rags, drinking at 
the scuppers when it rained, lamed, maimed by being 
thrown about in her weak and uninured state, the 
laughing-stock of the crew and the target for the 

171 



(^elebrate^ Crimes of tbe 1Ru55tan Court 

cabin-boys' and powder-monkeys' jeers, she was fain, 
like the Prodigal Son, to eat of the husks disdained 
by the ship's pig. She became scullion to the negro 
cook, paring the vegetables for the sailors' messes. 
The voyage was long, and there was time for her to 
have died of any of the deaths a hundred times menac- 
ing her. But Helena was alive at Cronstadt, where 
the frigate cast anchor and Orloff disembarked to 
report to his imperial mistress. 

That same evening a boat, covered in with canvas 
like a gondola, used by the Empress for nightly trips 
on the Neva, reached the admiral's ship-side, and was 
rowed up the river, to stop before the fortress. Out 
of the bark, wrapped in a long veil, which allowed 
nothing to be distinguished of the sex, the form, or 
the face, a woman was taken, and the officer and four 
marines marched her up to the citadel gates. He had 
an order for the governor. Without making a re- 
mark, the latter beckoned a turnkey to come to him, 
pointed to a number inscribed on the wall, and took 
the lead in a grim procession. 

" Follow the governor," said the jailer to the 
woman, who obeyed like a whipped dog. 

The courtyard was crossed, a postern door opened, 
twenty steps were descended, a door numbered " 56 " 
was opened, and the woman shoved into the sepul- 
chre. Empress Elizabeth's daughter, the Princess 
Helena Tarakanoff, the marvellous being apparently 
made of mother-of-pearl, ermine, satin, velvet, and 

172 



H IRomance of tbe IRusslan JSastile 

diamonds, was flung half-clad, in tatters, into a damp 
and darksome dungeon of the St. Andrew Ravelin. 

Beneath the Neva level, the waters incessantly dashed 
up against the walls. The only light came through 
a loophole, so contrived that, though the incarcerated 
one might peep at the sky, not one star there could 
peer down in upon her. As if in nature's sympathy, 
great tears welled out of these clammy apertures and 
poured down the slimy stones, cold, as if out of a 
freezing eye, and formed pools on the floor. In this 
mud was thrown some straw, half-soddened, — and 
this was the princess's bed! It had no superiority to 
that of the ship-deck but in having a roof above. She 
who had known what down and linen were, and had 
believed that she could not survive that horrid voyage, 
and now was sure that she would not survive this pit 
for a month, she languished there — twelve years! 

On her knees, with her withering hands clasped, 
she implored her jailers at least to tell her for what 
crime this penalty was exacted, — all in that gentle 
Italian tongue made for love and prayer, — but they 
never answered by a look. Ceasing to appeal and 
weep, she almost ceased to whine and whimper. She 
lived as reptiles do, which sometimes she felt crawl 
over her hollow cheeks and on her icy hands. She 
grew not only heedless, but insensible to outer sounds. 
Since some days she had heard the Neva's waves 
become billows and roar with greatest violence; but 
this had happened so many times before, in a dozen 

173 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

years. She heard the cannon thunder: a flood was 
signalled. The flood usually, on reaching the loophole 
edge, stopped. But now it lapped in and crept down 
the walls. Then it spouted. She could not doubt — 
she would be drowned in a given time. The Neva 
was " up." 

She was but thirty-two yet, and comprehended the 
danger. Miserable as was her existence, she saw that 
death was more miserable. 

The water was up to her knees by this. She called 
and she screamed. She lifted a slab which she could 
not have stirred in her strongest days and pounded 
on the door. A keeper deigned to look in at the 
wicket. 

"What is wanted here?" he demanded. 

" Let me out — oh, let me out ! " shrieked the poor 
woman. " Don't you see that the cell is filling with 
water? Put me where else you will, but don't drown 
me like a kitten ! " 

" No one leaves his place here unless by the Em- 
press's orders," was the reply. 

She flew at the little peep-hole door, but he pushed 
her in the face so brutally that she fell back in the 
chilly water. When she rose, she went to the part 
where the floor was a trifle higher. The more the 
sea came in, the greater it was in volume. She was 
an aquameter, and could tell how fast it was rising! 
In the evening she was heard to shriek horribly, or, 
in prayerful tones, ejaculate '' Dio!'' in Italian. Al- 

174 



H IRomance of tbe iRusstan Bastde 

most all through the night these vociferations were 
audible, more and more lamentable and heartrending, 
and they were the more touching when marred by the 
gurgling, as if now and then the sufferer swallowed 
the brine. 

At about four in the morning the cries ceased. 
When the flood was over and the waters had receded, 
the jailers went to the princess's cell and found her 
a corpse. No order was needed from the Empress to 
take her out now ! A pit was dug in the frozen earth 
by the ramparts, and therein she was buried, in the 
night-time. To-day, by a sign, a nudge, a wink, or 
a pointed finger, a stone block is indicated, where the 
soldiers sit to play cards or chat. It is the sole mon- 
ument to the Empress Elizabeth's daughter — the only 
souvenir of the hapless Helena. 



175 



CHAPTER X. 

A ROMANCE OF THE FRIGID NEVA 

(1798) 

Like all citadels, the fortress of St. Petersburg is 
built to be a visible symbol of the antagonism between 
sovereign and subjects. 

Granted, it defends the town, but it threatens it a 
great deal more; it was erected to repel the Swedes, 
but it serves to overawe the Russians. It is the Mus- 
covite Bastile, and, like the French one, imprisons 
intellect as well as body. Its story will be dreadful 
to write, for it has seen everything and heard all, too, 
but never has it revealed anything. When comes the 
day for its interior to be laid open, like the Paris 
Bastile, its dungeons, by their blackness, depth, and 
fatal humidity, will appal. It will have a voice like 
Stentor's. Then Russia will boast a history: so far, 
it has but romances. One of these I am going to 
relate. 

In the month of September, 1855, a friend of mine 
was hunting a hundred versts out Pereslof way, from 
Moscow. The pursuit had allured him so far that he 
could not get home that evening. He spied a little 

176 



H IRomance ot tbe ffriat^ mcva 

country-house, owned these fifty odd years by a gen- 
tleman who had always tenanted it. He was twenty 
years old when he came here, but no one knew whence 
he came or who he was, or how he had acquired the 
place. During ten years he had no visitors, made no 
acquaintances, and spoke no more than was strictly 
needed. Although the estate was large enough to 
maintain five hundred tillers, and brought him in some 
five thousand rubles a year, he had never been mar- 
ried. This property was situated between Troitka 
Monastery and the petty town of Pereslof. 

Although this person, by repute, was far from hos- 
pitable, our sportsman did not hesitate to ask his leave 
to pass the night under his roof, if only to have a seat 
and a share of the supper. Even the Russian cottager 
does not refuse the stove-side to the traveller, and less 
likely would the Russian gentleman turn a cold shoul- 
der on his fellow countryman. Under the Emperor 
Alexander only did the term of " fellow citizen " 
spring up. 

As it was seven o'clock, the twilight was dying and 
the dark came on, brought by that keen evening breeze 
foretelling the winter three weeks ahead, when the 
wayfarer knocked at the palate door. So are named 
such habitations, a little less than mansion and a little 
more than villa. At the rapping, an old serving-man 
came and opened it. The stranger expressed his 
quandary. The servant begged him to wait a moment, 
while he went to repeat the desire to the master. In 

177 



Celebrated) Crimea of tbe IRusslan Court 

five minutes he was back in the antechamber, and 
invited the hunter to walk in. 

He found the host at table with a neighbour, whom 
he recognized as an old friend of his father's. So 
here was a recommendation for the self-invited visitor, 
in case the host went back on his word. But there 
was no fear, and the householder rose, came to him, 
and asked him to sit at the board. 

He was a handsome old man of over seventy; his 
quick eye was somewhat disquieted; he was robust; 
and his hair and his beard were so thick that their 
whiteness did not detract from his evidences of vigour. 
He wore the country dress in all strictness : knee-high 
boots, full black velvet breeches tucked in them, gray 
cloth double-breasted coat, and an astrachan-trimmed 
cap. 

The meal was nearing its end, for the two were 
smoking over a cup of tea. The old gentleman or- 
dered the remainder of the dinner to be put back on 
the table, while apologizing to the guest for having 
to treat him so far below his wishes in the matter. 
At any rate, the '' left-overs " were ample to satiate 
the most hungry hunter. The latter ate so quickly 
that he caught up with the other guests when they 
had reached their third or fourth cigar and the fifth 
or sixth cup of tea. Of course, the two acquaintances 
had at once exchanged greetings, and the master of 
the house knew that they were friends. The con- 
versation turned on topics of the time. The Czar 

178 



a IRomance of tbe Jfrtgtb ticva 

Nicholas had died on the i8th of February of this 
year, and Alexander 11. had opened his succession by 
acts and speeches promising the country such a future 
as she had not dared to expect. Contrary to the habits 
of his age, the old landlord, not bewailing the past, 
appeared happy over the change of rule, and breathed 
deep, like one long oppressed under a stone ceiling 
and enjoying a liberty regained with delight. 

The chat singularly interested the newcomer; for 
the host's prodigious memory enabled him to prattle 
of times remote as though they had happened yester- 
day. He recalled the Empress Catherine II., and those 
notables of a previous generation, — Orloffs, Potem- 
kines, Zuboffs, — who appeared to his younger hearers 
like spectres of a vanished era. Therefore he must 
have dwelt in St. Petersburg before he came to his 
estate; touching elbows with the courtiers before re- 
tiring among his serfs. This loquacity astounded the 
latest guest, for his host did not possess the reputation 
of a gossip. No doubt the pressure to speak was the 
greater from his having been silenced a long while. 
He even responded with much complaisance to the 
young man's plentiful questions. Still, marked cir- 
cumspection held the latter, who did not risk venturing 
a query which worried him, namely : 

" How could a gentleman of this position quit the 
capital so early in life tO' vegetate in this rustic 
Hfe?" 

When the host had stepped out of the room for a 
179 



Ccleljrateb Crtmes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

moment, he addressed this inquiry to his father's old 
friend, who replied: 

" I am no better informed than you on that head, 
though I have been nigh thirty years acquainted with 
our mysterious neighbour. But I am under the im- 
pression that he was going to make a clean breast 
of it all — if you, as a stranger, had not dropped in ! 
He was about to speak, and it is the first time I ever 
saw him so open ! " 

The host returned, and, as it was a breach of hos- 
pitality for the newcomer to be a wet blanket on the 
old cronies, he got up. He begged to be shown the 
room intended for him. The next room was indicated. 
Only a thin partition separated it from the dining- 
room, and, as if this were not enough temptation to 
listen, the host left the door open behind him. The 
guest was aware that he might not get a peep into 
the side-room, but he could hear every word. It was 
a temptation for a saint ! 

But I will do this piece of justice to my friend, to 
say that he did try to nod off, so as not to play the 
eavesdropper. But it was in vain that he turned and 
twisted on his divan, shut his eyes, and drew the 
coverlet over them, for sleep seemed to flee with as 
much obstinacy as his in wooing it. If it did appear 
to bow to his yearning, it was only to leave at the 
supreme moment when thoughts become muddled, and 
through the closed lids one thinks to see phantoms 
sailing around, and hear dogs scratching at the door, 

1 80 



H iRomance of tbc jftlglb Beva 

or bats rapping at the window-panes — he would 
fully awake with widely distended eyes, and his ear 
would turn, despite his will, toward the door ajar, 
which allowed the light to stream in, together with 
the words. He deemed it his duty to notify his neigh- 
bourhood, if not his presence, at the colloquy; but at 
each notice in sneezing, coughing, and yawning, the 
conversation ceased, it is true, but to go on again when 
the interruption ended. 

For a stretch of five minutes he had the imprudence 
to pause and try to think of alien things which usually 
overbalance what is being thundered into one's ear; 
but the scales remained even, and, while all within 
was hushed, he could but hear the first words of a 
revelation of which he had wished a hint, and, having 
heard the first words, he had not the strength to close 
his ears to the following. 

As the old man told the tale, we tell it : 

I was only in my eighteenth year (began the host), 
and yet I had been ensign for two years in the Paulov- 
ski Regiment. It was in barracks in the large building 
still standing on the other side of the Champ de Mars, 
over against the Summer Garden. The Emperor Paul 
had been reigning three years, and dwelt in the Red 
Palace, just finished. 

One evening, when I had been refused leave of 
absence because of some boyish prank, and was by 
myself in the dormitory of the subalterns of my grade, 

i8i 



Celebtateb Crimes ot tbe IRusslan Court 

I was aroused from slumber by a voice close to my 
ear, which whispered : 

" Dmitri Alexandre witch, rise and follow me ! " 

Opening my eyes, I saw a man who repeated to me, 
fully awakened, the order with which he had aroused 
me. 

" Follow you — and whither ? " I faltered. 

*' I am not allowed to tell. But I may say that it 
is on behalf of the Czar ! " 

I shivered. On the Emperor's behalf ? What could 
the Father of all Russians want with the poor ensign, 
the child of good family, but still too remote from 
the lowest step of the throne to have the name reach 
his august ear? I remembered our terrible saying, 
originated in the days of Ivan the Terrible : " The 
nearer the Czar, the nearer to death ! " But halting 
was not to be thought of. I leapt out of bed and set 
to dressing myself, while I looked attentively at my 
summoner. Though he was muffled up in his furred 
pelisse, I believe I recognized a Turk, the imperial 
barber, and also the Czar's favourite. This scrutiny 
was but a glance, anyway, for there might be danger 
in prolonging the stare. 

'' I am ready," said I, buckling my sword to my 
side, in case I might require it. 

My uneasiness increased doubly when I saw that 
my conductor, instead of leaving the dormitory by 
the regular exit, went down by a hidden stairway, 
curling through the lower floors. He had a dark lan- 

182 



H IRomance of tbe fftlGt^ IReva 

tern, with which he illumined our devious ways. After 
many windings and turnings, I found we were at a 
spot utterly unknown to me. During all the passage 
we had met no one; it would seem the barracks had 
been vacated. If I did fancy I spied a shadow or 
two, they merged so speedily with the gloom that they 
were absorbed by the other shadows. The door which 
brought us to a stop was fastened, but, on my guide 
tapping at it in a peculiar way, it was opened, evidently 
by some keeper waiting at the farther side. In fact, 
when we passed through, I did see a man who shut 
the door behind us and followed. 

The corridor was hewn out of clay to the width of 
some eight feet, the brick walls leaking with wet. 
About five hundred paces farther, an iron grating cut 
off farther advance. My pilot had the key for this, and, 
opening the grille, he let us through, but fastened it 
up after. We continued our way. The tradition came 
back to me that there was a subterranean gallery run- 
ning from the Red Palace into the Paulovski Gren- 
adiers Barracks. If this was that tunnel, we should 
arrive in the palace. We did reach a door, much like 
the first. This door was rapped upon as the other 
had been signalled at, and was opened in the same 
manner by a man on post. We ascended a stairway, 
and entered some rooms of a great establishment, for, 
though inferior in aspect, they were heated as only 
in a mansion. The rooms began to assume propor- 
tions worthy of a palace. 

183 



Celebtateb Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

My doubts ceased thereupon, for I must be led to 
the Emperor, — and yet, an Emperor send for me, an 
ensign in the guards! But I remembered the tales 
of young officers, met on the street by the sovereign, 
called to step up behind upon his carriage, and ap- 
pointed, in less than a quarter of an hour, lieutenant, 
captain, colonel, general! Yet it was pretty presump- 
tuous for me to hope that I was called for such pro- 
motion ! 

Whatever was coming, we reached a door where a 
sentinel was posted. Here my leader laid his hand 
on my shoulder, saying: 

" Bear yourself like a man ! You stand before the 
Father!" 

Whispering one word to the soldier, the latter drew 
aside, and he opened a door, not in any usual way, 
but by some secret spring. 

At this sound, which was hardly a sound, a man 
in the room turned our way. He was a small figure, 
wearing a Prussian military uniform, his boots com- 
ing up thigh-high, and his coat falling to his spurs, 
and, though indoors, and it was midnight, wearing a 
gigantic three-cocked hat, all in full parade dress. I 
knew my Emperor. That was no puzzle, for he held 
a review of us grenadiers daily. I remembered now 
that he had let his glance rest on me the time before. 
He had also called my captain out of his place to ques- 
tion him, for they had looked toward me during the 
colloquy; then an officer of his suite had been given 

184 



H IRomance ot tbe jfrtgi^ Beva 

some full and absolute order. All this heightened my 
disquiet. 

" Sire, here is the young subaltern your Majesty 
wished to speak to," said the usher, bowing. 

The Czar came up to me, and, on account of his 
small stature, stood tiptoe to look me over. Surely 
recognizing me as the one he wanted, he nodded ap- 
provingly, and said: 

"Go!" 

My conductor cringed, and went out, leaving me 
alone with his Majesty. I declare that I would rather 
have been left alone in the lion's cage with his tawny 
Majesty! 

At first the Czar appeared not to pay me any heed, 
for he strode up and down with long steps, only stop- 
ping at the great window to inhale the fresh freezing 
air by a single pane arranged in a leaden frame to 
swing open on hinges in the double casement. After 
taking a long breath, he would walk to a table, where 
was a snuff-box, out of which he took another breath. 
This was his sleeping-chamber, and that window, after 
he was slain, never was opened again. I had time 
enough to " inventory " the furniture. Near a win- 
dow was a chest of drawers, the worse for wear. On 
its top an open paper. At last the master seemed 
aware of my presence. He came over to me with 
what seemed an angry face, but the spasms were solely 
nervous. He stopped in front. 



1 8s 



Celebrated) Crimes ot tbe IRusslan Court 

" Atom of dust, thou knowest that thou art but 
dust and that I am Everything! " ejaculated he. 

I do not know where I found the power to answer, 
but I said : 

" Thou, Father, art the Elect of the Lord and the 
arbiter of man's destiny ! " 

" Humph ! " said he. He turned his back on me 
and walked about again, sharing his breathing between 
the air and the snuff, before he came upon me a 
second time, snapping: 

" So you know that when I command, without any 
resistance, observations, or commentaries, I must be 
obeyed ? " 

" As one obeys the mandates of Heaven, yea. Sire! " 

He stared at me so fixedly and with such a strange 
expression, that I could not bear the look. I blenched. 
He appeared satisfied with the influence he exercised 
over me. He attributed it to respect, but it was dis- 
gust. Going to the old bureau, he took up the paper 
and read it over and over, folded it, put it in a wrapper, 
and sealed it, not with the official imperial seal, but a 
private one, in a finger-ring. He returned to me. 

*' Bear in mind that I have chosen thee out of a 
thousand to execute my orders," he observed, "be- 
cause I thought that they would be right well carried 
out by thee!" 

** Before mine eyes has ever been the obedience I 
owe my Emperor," was my reply. 



1 86 



H IRomance ot tbe jftiatb tlcva 

" Good, good 1 Remember that thou art but dust, 
and that I am Everything ! '' 

" I am awaiting your Majesty's orders." 

" Take this letter to the governor of the citadel, and, 
accompanying him wherever it pleaseth him to lead 
you, witness that which he shall do, and come back to 
me to report, ' I saw it done! ' " 

I took the paper, bowing. 

" You understand me, you are to see and say, * I 
saw!'" 

"Yes, Sire!" 

"Be off!" 

The Emperor shut the door between us, saying : 

"Dust, dust, dust!" 

On the sill I stood dumfounded, but the guide was 
there, who said: 

" Come away ! " 

We went away, but by a different route. It led to 
the outside of the structure. We were in a yard 
where a sledge awaited. My companion and I got in. 
The gates on Fontanka Bridge opened, and the sledge 
darted forth, drawn by three horses, at the trot. Cross- 
ing the whole square, we arrived on the river Neva's 
bank. The horses raced down upon the ice, and, as 
in a steeplechase, guided by the spires of Sts. Peter 
and Paul, we crossed the stream. It was a dark night, 
and the wind blew fearfully and ominously. I hardly 
could tell, save for the jar at bounding up the other 
shore edge, that we were over, It was the citadel 

187 



(rclel)rate& Crimes of tbe iRussfan Court 

gateway. The soldier on guard was given the pass- 
word, and allowed us to pass. 

We entered the fort. The sledge stopped at the 
governor's private entrance. The password again 
being used, we were allowed within the governor's 
inner ward, as within the outer one. 

The governor was abed, but he was made to rise 
by the mighty summons: 

" By order of the Emperor ! " 

He arrived, concealing his agitation under a smile. 
Under a king like Paul, there was no more safety for 
jailers than captives — executioners and condemned. 
The warder questioned us two ocularly, and the guide 
responded that I was the one to do business with, by a 
sign. He gave me more attention thereupon, but still 
wavered about addressing me. To set him more at 
ease, but without speaking, I handed him the order 
from our chief. He took it to the candle-light, ex- 
amined the seal, which he recognized as the private 
one, that to cover secret commands, and bowed to it. 
He made a reverential sign as if to beg heavenly in- 
terposition for himself, and opened the missive. After 
reading, he looked at me ; reading again, he said : 

" So you are to see what goes on ? " 

" I am to see all," was my response. 

" What are you to see? " 

" You know." 

"But do you not?" 

" No." 

i88 



a IRomance ot tbe fviQit> t\cva 

He fell into thought for an instant. 

" Did you come by sledge ? " 

" Yes." 

" How many does it hold ? " 

'' It can hold three." 

" Is this gentleman coming with us ? " he went on, 
turning his head to the guide. 

" No," replied the barber, as I hesitated. " I shall 
wait here." 

"What for?" 

" Till the thing is through." 

" Very well. Get a sledge ready," he said to a 
warder, '' and let four soldiers come with an axe, a 
sledge-hammer, and a couple of crowbars." 

The jailer went out straightway. The governor 
turned to me and remarked : 

" Come along, and you shall see." 

He left the room to show me the way, and I fol- 
lowed, with a turnkey bringing up the rear. We 
proceeded thus till we came out before the prison part. 
The governor pointing to a door, the jailer opened it 
and took the lead, where in a nook he found a lantern, 
which he lit and gave us light. We went down ten 
steps, which would be the first range of dungeons, 
but we did not stop there; we went down ten other 
steps, but we did not stop there; we went down five, 
but we stopped here. The doors were numbered, and 
the governor halted before that bearing the number 
eleven. He ordered the attendant to open that, but 

189 



Celebrate^ Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

with a sign; in this ward of living death speech 
seemed to leave us as if we were nearly lifeless, too. 

Outdoors, it was twenty degrees below freezing; 
in these warmer depths, the frost was tempered with 
damp, which soaked into the bones ; my very marrow 
was frozen, and yet I had to wipe off the drip from 
my brow. 

When the door was opened, we climbed down six 
steep and gluey steps, which belonged to a cell eight 
feet square. I heard a strange dull gurgling, and, 
looking, perceived a loophole a foot long by four 
inches wide. Through this slit the wind rushed, and 
made a draught to the air in the corridor through the 
open door. But the sound was not from the wind, but 
the river water slapping the fortress wall; this dun- 
geon was below the tide level. 

" Rise and clothe yourself ! " said the governor. 

I was curious to know to whom this order was 
addressed, and bade the jailer : 

"Light up!" 

It was not till then that I saw a thin and pallid old 
man, with beard and hair snow-white, raise himself. 
It is likely he had been thrown here in the garments 
he wore when arrested; but long ago they had rotted 
off, piece by piece, so that now the clothing was but 
a tattered pelisse. Through these shreds showed his 
shivering, bony, naked body. Peradventure, that body 
had been arrayed in splendid raiment; perhaps that 

fleshless breast had been adorned by plaques, stars, and 

190 



H IRomance ot tbe jfrtgt& IReva 

ribbons of noble orders ; but now was but an anatomy, 
which had lost name, dignity, and rank, becoming 
plain " No. ii." 

" Eleven " rose, draping himself in his clout with- 
out a murmur. His body was bowed by captivity, 
damp, time, the dark, and, perchance, starvation, but 
it had a fiery and almost threatening eye. 

" That is right. Come," said the governor, going 
forth. 

The prisoner, able to see them, gave a farewell 
glance at his cell, the stone bench, the earthen water- 
jug, the decaying straw, and sighed, — yet it was 
impossible that he could regret any of them! To 
follow the functionary he had to pass me by. I shall 
never forget the glance he gave me, and how much 
reproach lay in it. 

'' So young, yet already obeying the dictates of 
tyranny," it seemed to say. 

I dropped my eyes, for this look had pierced me to 
the core like a dagger. I shrank back, too, that he 
might not touch me on the way. 

He crossed the slimy threshold, over which he had 
entered — how long ago ? I dare say he himself was 
ignorant. In the bottom of this abyss he must have 
given up the reckoning of nights and days. 

As I left next to him, the jailer carefully shut the 
door, as if one tenant could only be removed to make 
room for another. 

At the governor's entrance-door two sledges were 
191 



(^ele^)rate^ Crimea ot tbe 1Ru66ian Court 

now waiting. Into the one which had brought me 
the governor stepped, after the prisoner had been put 
in ; we three were seated, the governor beside him and 
I on the front seat. The four soldiers got into the 
second vehicle. I was as ignorant of whither we were 
going as what we should do. But the deed was no 
concern of mine, as I was ordered to be a witness, and 
to be able to say that I had seen. 

We set off. Prom my position I had the old man's 
knees between my own, and felt them shaking. The 
governor was wrapped up in furs, and I had my 
winter overcoat on, but both of us felt the cold. But 
the old wretch was nearly nude, and yet the governor 
had not thought of having him covered. It struck 
me, for an instant, to take off my pelisse and offer 
it to him, but the military official divined my impulse 
and checked it, saying : 

" It is not worth the trouble ! '* 

Repeating our course, we crossed the Neva once 
more. But in the midst of the channel, our vehicle 
took the direction of Cronstadt. The gale blew vio- 
lently out of the Baltic; hail lashed our faces; one 
of those terrible " snow-drivers," a local term so ex- 
pressive, as local terms are, was brewing in the Gulf 
of Finland, where alone they exist. Although our 
eyes were used to the dark, we could not see ten paces 
ahead. When we had passed the Point, the snow- 
squall burst. My friend, you have no idea of what 

that tempest of snow, sleet, hail, and wind was on the 

192 



H IRomance ot tbe lfrt0t^ 1Rex>a 

sea, amid low marshy land, where not a tree opposed 
its fury. We split a moving atmosphere, where floated 
thickening snowflakes and icy particles, ready to freeze 
solid and smother us between frigid walls. 

Our neighing and balky horses refused to go on. 
Nothing but hard blows of the whip's butt end forced 
them to make a step. At any moment they might 
swerve and dash us against the banks. But with 
incredible struggles we kept the channel. I knew that, 
in broad day, sometimes, whole files of sledges, horses, 
and passengers had been engulfed on the frozen high- 
way in one of the air-holes, and we might easily 
blunder into the like in the night. 

And all this while my knees hugged the old man's 
shivering bones. 

At last we stopped, at about a league from St. 
Petersburg. The governor got out and went to the 
second sledge. The four soldiers had already alighted, 
each holding the implement assigned to him. 

" Cut a hole out in the ice," said the governor. 

I could not restrain a cry of horror, for I began 
to understand. 

" Ah, ha ! " ground out the old man between his 
shrunk lips, with a laugh like a skeleton's. " So the 
Empress has remembered me? I thought I had es- 
caped her mind ! " 

Of which Empress did he speak? For three had 
succeeded one another : Anna, Elizabeth, and Cath- 
erine. It was clear that he believed he was living 

193 



(Xelebratet) Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

still in the reign of one of them, and that he would 
die unaware of the name of the ruling monarch. What 
was the gloom of this night to that which filled his 
cell? 

The soldiers had set to work, chopping holes for 
the levers and cutting out blocks to give a clear gap. 
It seemed to skim over as fast as they cleaved, but 
suddenly they leaped back with a shout; the water 
gushed up, for the ice was clearly broken through. 

" Step out," said the governor, returning to the 
captive. 

It was a useless order, for the man had got out. 
Kneeling on the ice, he prayed. The governor whis- 
pered an order to the chief soldier, and came to me, in 
the sledge. The old man wrenched his knee from 
where the frost had congealed it, and got up, saying: 

"I am ready!" 

All four soldiers threw themselves upon him. I 
averted my sight, but I heard the splash of a body 
falling into the pit-hole. I could not help looking 
around, but the victim had disappeared. I forgot that 
I was not there to give orders, and yelled to the 
driver : 

''Pac/^b/ — away!" 

" Stoi! — as you are!" corrected the governor. 

The sledge, already on the turn, stopped. 

" All is not over," said the governor to me, in 
French. 

" No? What more can there be for us? " I asked. 

194 



H IRomance of tbe ffrtatb IFleva 

" Wait ! " returned the functionary. 

And we waited half an hour. 

" It is frozen over, Excellency," said one of the 
soldiers. 

"Sure?" 

He kicked on the new surface, which wa^ solid. 

" Let us go," said the governpr. 

The horses started back at the gallop and as though 
the storm-fiend pursued us. 

In less than ten minutes we were at the fortress, 
where the sledge took up my first conductor. 

" To the Red Palace," he bade the driver. 

It was not five minutes before the imperial bed- 
chamber door was opening to allow my entrance. The 
Emperor was standing there, dressed as I had left him. 
He stopped before me, 

"Well?" 

" I saw it," repHed I. 

"You did see it? You did, you did?" 

" Look at me. Sire, and you will not doubt that! " 
I ventured. 

I was standing before a mirror, and I was not only 
pale, but my features were convulsed so awry that 
I did not know myself. The Emperor took a look 
at me, and without another word went to take from 
the bureau a paper, where the other had been. 

" Between Troitza and Pereslof," said he, " I give 
you an estate, with five hundred serfs. Go there, this 



195 



Celebratet) Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

nig^ht, and never again come to St. Petersburg! If 
you babble, you know how I stop mouths ! Go ! " 

I went. I never have even visited Moscow; and 
this is the first time that I have related what you 
hear to any living soul. 



196 




CZAR PAUL I. 



CHAPTER XL 

the romance of a czaricide 

(Paul L, 1796- 1801) 

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the 
name of Pahlen shoots up into view and commands 
that attention attracted to a passing meteor. 

Peter Pahlen was of good Courland nobiHty, as 
King Charles IX. of Sweden had made his forefathers 
barons. Pahlen, having won the favour of the Em- 
press Catherine's last favourite, Platon Zuboff, was 
appointed major-general and given the custody of 
Riga City. The Grand Duke Paul, sometime before 
his ascension to the throne, passed through this ex- 
capital of Livonia, and was received by the civil 
governor with all the honours due the heir apparent. 
Paul was under a cloud, in a kind of exile. Little 
used to such treatment, he was grateful to the official 
for what he dared do, at risk of offending the 
Czarina. When he became Emperor, he sent for 
Pahlen, whom he made a count, decorated with the 
highest orders, and, with the commandership of the 
Body-guards, also set him as governor of St. Peters- 
burg. For him he actually displaced his son Alex- 

197 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

ander, whose affection and respect could not disarm 
his mistrust. 

From his position, so near the ruler, Count Pahlen 
saw so many men rise and fall at his whim, and he 
had seen so many toys break to pieces when so fall- 
ing, that he kept wondering how it was that he did 
not suffer the same fate. A recent example of the 
instability of human fortunes struck him. 

Without any reason, his protector, Zuboff, who 
had preserved Paul's esteem at Catherine's death, was 
suddenly dismissed from his chancellery and post of 
palace-mayor. 

That was not all. His twenty or thirty sinecures 
were taken from him, and a week had not passed 
before he was ordered to leave the country. He did 
retire into Germany, and, being young and handsome 
and covered with knightly medals, he was a brilliant 
beau at Vienna and Berlin. Nevertheless, he regretted 
St. Petersburg, where he had been a prince, — Prince 
of the Holy Empire, June, 1796, — and, keeping in 
touch with Pahlen, supplicated him to manage his re- 
entree into society. As the count was himself trying 
to stand on slippery ground, he did not know how 
to hold up a patron, but all at once a bright idea flew 
to his aid. 

" There is only one way open," he wrote; " up the 
church aisle with a bride ! Ask the hand of the daugh- 
ter of the court barber, Kutaisoff. It will be given 
you, Return here to woo your Hancee, dally; and, 

19S 



Ube IRomance of a C3arict^e 

in the meantime, who knows but something will occur 
to detain you in town." 

The advice seemed sound to Zuboff, who wrote to 
Count Kutaisoff for the permission to court his daugh- 
ter. The latter read the letter over and over again, 
unable to trust his sight. The idea of Prince Platon 
Zuboff, favourite of Czarina Catherine, richest and 
handsomest of Russian gallants, wishing to be allied 
with his family ! He ran to the palace, and, throwing 
himself on his knees to the Emperor, showed him the 
missive. The other read it and commented : 

" That's the first sensible notion that mad brain ever 
entertained. Very well, let him come and court the 
lady!" 

Zuboff was back in a fortnight, and, under imperial 
support, courted the ex-barber's daughter. 

As though it had only waited for Zuboff to be in 
town again, a plot to upset the sovereign matured. 
At the outset, the conspirators had counted on a 
simple abdication, the substitution of one man for 
another, no more. The superseded one was to be 
hurried away into some outlandish fortress, while the 
heir, whose consent was not asked for, was to be set 
on the throne. Only a few knew that no swords were 
to be drawn, but, when the dagger is used, it is seldom 
sheathed as clean as when taken out ; these knew the 
Czarowitch's character, and, knowing that he would 
not accept a regency, determined he should directly 
succeed. 

199 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

While the head of the treasonable movement, Pahlen 
had scrupulously avoided giving any earnest of his 
complicity ; according to the turn of the tide, he could 
assist his confederates or assist Paul. This guarded- 
ness cast a chill over the proceedings, and matters 
would have dragged on had Pahlen not himself 
spurred them on by a daring stratagem, but one which, 
from understanding the Czar, he knew was worthy 
of success. He wrote his master an unsigned letter, 
warning him of the danger by which the empire was 
menaced. Appended was a list of all the conspira- 
tors. 

On looking into it, Paul's first impulse was to 
double the palace guards and call Pahlen in. Expect- 
ing the invitation, the count responded instantly. He 
found Paul in his sleeping-apartments on the first floor. 
It was a large, square room, with a door over against 
the fireplace, and two windows on the courtyard. The 
bed was lighted by them, and the bed hid a secret 
panel — a trap which, at a stamp of the foot, opened 
and allowed passage upon a stairway and corridor, 
whence the palace could be quitted. 

Paul was walking up and down, marking time in 
his paces with terrible oaths, when the door opened 
to let the count present himself. The monarch wheeled 
around, and, fixing his eyes upon him, as he folded 
his arms, asked, after a pause: 

"Count, do you know what is going on?" 

" I only know that your gracious Majesty has sum- 

200 



Ube IRomance ot a Csarictbe 

moned me, and that I eagerly await his orders ! " was 
the reply. 

" But do you not know the reason of my sum- 
mons ? " asked the other, fretfully. 

" I am respectfully waiting for your deigning to 
inform me." 

" I call you, my lord, because a plot is woven against 
me." 

" I know that, Sire." So the reply, as from a man 
who had plots served up with his breakfast daily. 

" What, what, you know that? " 

" I ought to, since I am one of the plotters ! " 

*' Ah, ha ! We'll soon see about that — for I have a 
list of the villains." 

" Why, here I have the duplicate ! Let us compare." 

" Deuce take it — it is the double," muttered Paul, 
as if it were a piece of magic, in affright. 

" Compare, Sire — if it is true, why, they ought to 
agree ! " 

They looked at both papers. 

" So it is," continued Pahlen, coolly. " But three 
names are omitted." 

"Which?" exclaimed Paul, wistfully. 

" Sire, prudence forbade me naming them ; yet, 
after the proof your Majesty has given of my exact 
details, I hope to be favoured with your entire con- 
fidence, and to my zeal entrusted the future care of 
your welfare." 

" No dallying," said Paul, with all the savagery 
20 1 



Celebratet) Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

of fright. " Who are the scoundrels ? I wish to know 
them at once! " 

Pahlen bowed, and intimated that respect prevented 
him uttering such august names. 

" I understand," said the mad monarch, in a hollow 
voice, glancing toward the secret door for the Czar- 
ina's apartments. " You shrink from naming the Em- 
press! You mean the Czarowitch Alexander and the 
Grand Duke Constantine ? " 

" The law does not take cognizance of those whom 
it cannot touch — " 

" The law reaches for anybody, sir, and no crime 
is so great that it should not be punished. Pahlen, on 
the instant have both the grand dukes arrested, and 
pack them off to Schlusselburg to-morrow. I shall 
attend to the Empress myself. The other offenders 
come within your scope." 

" Sire, give me the order in your hand, and however 
lofty be the head threatened, however grand the sin- 
ners — I shall obey," said Pahlen. 

" My good old Pahlen ! " exclaimed Paul. " You 
are the only true servitor I have! Watch over me, 
Pahlen, for I see clearly that they seek my life, and 
I have no other buckler than you ! " 

So he signed the order to arrest the two princes, 
and handed it to his confidant. The skilful plotter 
wished no more. He dressed himself in full court 
dress and sped to Zuboff's mansion, where he knew 
there was held a meeting of the plotters. 

202 



XTbe IRomance of a Csarictbe 

" All is discovered ! " shouted he. " I hold the order 
to have you arrested. So not an instant must be 
wasted. I am governor of the capital for this night 
— but I may be in jail to-morrow! Let us see what 
you will do about it ! " 

Hesitation was out of the question, since to hesitate 
was to totter into prison or on the road to Siberia. 
The allies agreed to assemble at the house of Count 
Talitzine, colonel of the Preobrajenski Regiment; as 
they were not numerous, they should recruit with all 
the malcontents threatened with arrest. The counter- 
measures were in operation, as, during the day, thirty 
officers, belonging to the first families, had been de- 
graded and cast into confinement, under charge of 
offences not deserving more than a reprimand. The 
count ordered a dozen sledges to wait at the gates 
of the prisons that held these, and, seeing that his 
friends stood firm, went to- see the Czarowitch Alex- 
ander. 

The latter had been to see his father, and had been 
rigid toward him as usual. Paul, in waving him 
farewell, had enjoined him to stay at home until 
further orders. So the count found him the more 
perplexed, as he did not know the reason for this 
wrath visible in the sovereign's eyes. Hardly did he 
perceive the visitor than he asked him if he were not 
bearing some order concerning him. 

" Alas, sir, a dread one ! " replied the double-dealer. 



203 



(Telebtate^ Crimes ot tbe 1Ru5Slan Court 

" I must make sure of your Highness's person and 
beg your sword." 

"Give up my sword? Pray, why?" demanded 
Alexander. 

" Because you are my prisoner henceforward." 

" I, a prisoner ? Of what crime am I accused, 
Pahlen?" 

'' Your Imperial Highness ought to know that a 
man may undergo the punishment without having 
committed any crime, unfortunately ! " 

" The Emperor is doubly master of my fate," ad- 
mitted the prince, " as sovereign and father. Show 
me the mandate, and I am ready to submit, whatever 
its nature." 

The count showing the paper, the prince read it, after 
kissing the paternal signature. When he reached the 
part alluding to Constantine, he exclaimed : " What, 
my brother, too!" He had hoped the order would 
concern himself alone. When he came to the para- 
graph concerning the Czarina, he cried out : " Oh, my 
virtuous mother ! a saint Heaven-sent among us ! This 
is going too far, Pahlen, too far ! " He dropped the 
decree in order to cover his moistening eyes with both 
hands. 

Pahlen thought that the striking hour had come. 

" My lord," burst forth he, falling on his knees, 
" hear me ! Great woes must be met forehanded ! A 
term should be set to your father's vagaries ! Now he 



304 



Ube IRomance ot a Csartctbe 

seeks your liberty — to-morrow he may aim at 
your — " 

"Pahlen, desist!'^ 

" My lord knows what happened to Alexis Petro- 
witch?" 

" Pahlen, you slander my father ! " 

" Not at all, my lord. For I do not accuse his 
nature, but his unsound reason. So many strange 
contradictions, inexecutable orders, and aimless pun- 
ishments are only explained away by the influence of 
brain disease. Those beside the Emperor say as much, 
while those at a distance put it plainly — he is mad ! " 

" Merciful Heavens ! " 

" In short, he must be saved from himself. I am 
not giving this counsel, but it comes from the nobility, 
the Senate, and the whole realm; of all I am but 
the mouthpiece ! The Emperor must abdicate in your 
favour." 

" What are you saying, Pahlen ? " stammered Alex- 
ander, falling back. " Am I to succeed a living sire ? 
Tear the sceptre from his grasp and snatch the crown 
off his head? It is you who must be mad, count! 
Never, never ! " 

"But does not your Highness see this order? Do 
you believe that a prison is purely intended — a death- 
house? Believe me, your Highnesses days are endan- 
gered." 

'' Save my brother — I ask nothing else," protested 
Alexander. " My brother and the Czarina ! " 

205 



Celebrated) Crtmes of tbe IRusstan Court 

" As if I were the master," sighed Pahlen. " Is 
there not an order for them likewise? Arrested, and 
held in walls, who can tell what overeager courtiers, 
to serve their sovereign, will do — going beyond his 
intentions? Turn your gaze toward England, my 
prince! Much the same thing is happening there. 
Though the power is less extensive and the danger 
is less severe, the Prince of Wales is ready to take 
the helm, granting their King George's madness is of 
a mild and inoffensive type. A last word, my lord! 
It may happen that in saving your life, the grand 
duke's, and the Empress's, your father's will be saved 
as well." 

" What do you mean ? " 

" I mean that Paul's rule is so heavy that the peer- 
age and Senate have determined to put an end to 
it by all possible means. Do you refuse an abdica- 
tion? Peradventure on the morrow you will be 
obliged to pardon a murder! " 

"Pahlen, may I not see my father?" faltered the 
prince. 

" Impossible; the order is strict that your Highness 
must not be allowed to approach." 

"Yet you affirm that his life is threatened?" 

" Russia has no hope but in your lordship, and when 
one must decide between a judgment which ruins 
and a crime which rescues — we must choose the 
crime ! " 

He turned as to go out. Alexander detained him 

206 



XTbe IRomance ot a Csartctbe 

with one hand, while the other drew from his bosom 
a crucifix by its gold chain. 

" Count, swear to me on this holy emblem that my 
father's days run no danger, and that you for one 
would die to save him. Swear this, or you shall not 
go forth ! " 

" My lord, I have made bold to tell you what ought 
to be spoken. Consider the proposition made you. I 
will go and think over the vow you wish sworn." 

Respectfully bowing, he went away, but posted 
guards at the doors. He proceeded to see the Grand 
Duke Constantine and the Czarina Maria, and notified 
them of the imperial order, but he did not disclose to 
them what he had said to the heir apparent. 

It was nine in the evening by this ; night, as it was 
early spring. Pahlen hastened to Talitzine's, where 
the conspirators, at table, hailed him with a thousand 
inquiries. 

'' I have no time to make answer," he said, " except 
that all goes well, and that I shall be back in half an 
hour with reinforcements ! " 

The banquet was resumed after the curt interrup- 
tion, while the active instigator hastened to the cit- 
adel. 

As he was the city governor, all prison doors opened 
to him. With a frown, and circled with jailers, those 
who in the dungeons saw him enter believed that they 
were going to be transferred to another den, or started 
on the way to Siberia. The harsh manner in which 

207 



Celebtate^ Crtmes ot tbe IRussian Court 

he bade them get ready to go into sledges for a 
journey confirmed this supposition. The unfortunate 
captives obeyed, and found soldiers at the gates. They 
stepped into the sledges without resistance, the com- 
pany of troopers surrounded them, and off went the 
train at a gallop. But, contrary to their fears, the 
journey ceased in ten minutes or so, for they stopped 
in the yard of a magnificent mansion. Bidden to get 
out, the captives were led within and the doors closed 
behind them, with the soldiers without. 

Pahlen was alone with the prisoners, whom he de- 
sired to follow him. 

Without any comprehension of what was intended, 
the party obeyed. On reaching a room adjacent to 
that where the conspirators were feasting, the count 
plucked a cloak off a long table and disclosed a bundle 
of sheathless swords. 

" Arm yourselves," cried he. 

While the stupefied officers carried out the order, 
and replacing at their side the blades so lately wrenched 
off by the hangman, began to suspect that some- 
thing stranger still was impending, the plotter had the 
doors thrown open. The newcomers stumbled in to 
the table, where, in a few minutes, glass in hand, they 
were drinking '' All hail, Alexander ! " with those 
friends from whom only awhile since they believed 
they were for ever parted. Informed of what was 
happening, still warm with shame and rage at what 
had befallen them, they joyfully greeted the regicidal 

208 



Zbc IRomance of a C5artctt)e 

proposition, and not one refused to take a hand in 
the awful tragedy in conception. 

At eleven, the band, to the number of sixty, left the 
meeting and went, under cloaks, toward the St. 
Michael Palace. The leaders were Benningsen, 
Zuboff, Deprerodawitch, the colonel of the Simionovski 
Regiment, the Imperial Aid-de-camp Arkamakoff, 
Prince Tateswill, major-general of artillery, General 
Talitzine, the colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and 
many others. 

They entered the palace by a garden postern ; as they 
passed under some large trees, stripped of leaves and 
twisting their rugged arms, they aroused a flight of 
ravens. Their crossing and croaking were a bad 
omen, and the superstitious body wavered, until Pah- 
len and Zuboff rallied them to continue the march. In 
the palace courtyard they divided into two bands. 
Pahlen took one in by a private door used when he 
wished to confer with the Czar in secret, and Benning- 
sen and Zuboff led the other, with Arkamakoff as 
guide. The latter reached the main stairs without 
check. Pahlen had relieved the regular sentries by 
officers in the league. One soldier, who had been left 
in the arrangement, did challenge them, but Benning- 
sen walked up to him, and, opening his upper coat 
to show his breast covered with stars and plaques, 
said: 

'' Silence ! Do you not see we are on special duty ? " 



209 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

" Pass, special patrol ! " responded the soldier, nod- 
ding to imply that he understood. 

In the lobby preceding the sleeping-apartments they 
found an officer, disguised as a private soldier. 

" The Emperor? " inquired Zuboff. 

" He came in about an hour ago, and, I dare say, 
he is abed by this," was the answer. 

This was well, and " the special patrol " went on 
its route. 

The master was, indeed, trying to get to sleep, 
though feeling that he was at the moment to strike 
at all heads by one neck, and promising himself that 
many a head should shortly fall! 

The valet refused Arkamakoff admittance at such 
an unwonted hour, but he persisted that he was on 
active service and the Emperor expected his report. 
On seeing the armed men rush in, the man fled into 
a corner. A Polish hussar, of the life-guards, sprang 
to the bedroom door, and, guessing the design, ordered 
the invaders to stand off. Zuboff attempted to grasp 
him and drag him away, but the hussar fired his pistol. 
But instantly that single defender of the commander 
of fifty-three millions of men was knocked down, dis- 
armed, and pinioned so that he could not stir. 

The pistol-shot waked Paul instantly. He jumped 
out of bed and darted to the secret communication 
with the Empress's suite; but only three days before 
he had, in mistrust, ordered that outlet to be sealed 
up, and it was closed against him. He remembered 



Ube IRomance ot a (^3arict^e 

the trap in the floor, and proceeded thither. But as 
he was barefooted, and the spring required a heavy 
blow, the trap would not work. At the same time, 
the door fell in, smashed, and the crowned maniac had 
only time to throw himself behind a corner of the 
carved mantelpiece. 

Benningsen and Zuboff dashed in, and the latter ran 
straight to the bed ; but, seeing it was empty, gasped : 

" All is lost! He has escaped! " 

" Not a bit of it — here he is ! " exclaimed the 
other. 

Seeing he was discovered, the Emperor called Pah- 
len to his help. 

" Sire ! " said Benningsen, saluting Paul with his 
sword, ** you vainly call for the count, as he is one 
of us. Anyway, your life runs no risk; but you are 
a prisoner, in the name of the Czar Alexander ! " 

"Who are you?" stammered the wretch, so ex- 
cited that by the pale night-lamp flicker he did not 
recognize the intruder. 

''Who are we?" replied Zuboff, presenting the act 
of abdication. " We are the Senate's envoys. Take 
this, read, and pronounce your own fate!" 

Zuboff had brought the light to the fireplace comer, 
where he held it up, as well as the form, for it to 
be read. Paul did take it, and looked at it. But at 
about a third of the way he stopped, and, raising his 
head to look at the enemy, he cried : 

" What have I done to you to be treated thus? " 

211 



Celebtatet) Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

" You have tyrannized over us four years ! " was 
one voice in reply. 

The despot went on reading. But, as he continued, 
the charges accumulated; the more and more out- 
rageous expressions wounded him; ire replaced dig- 
nity. He forgot that he was weaponless and alone, 
surrounded by violent men with sword in hand; he 
crumpled up the act of abdication and threw it down 
under his feet, saying : 

''Never! Death first!'* 

He made an effort to pick up his sword, which lay 
on an armchair near by. 

At this point the second detachment arrived. It 
was composed mainly of young noblemen degraded 
or kept out of court, among the chief of whom was 
Prince Tateswill, who had vowed to be avenged for 
the insult. He had scarcely entered the room before 
he sprang at the monarch, struggled with him bodily, 
and threw him so that they knocked down the lamp 
and a screen together. The Czar uttered a piercing 
scream, for, in the fall, he had struck his head against 
the chimneypiece and cut his brow deeply. Trembling 
at the fear that the cry would be heard, Sartarinoff, 
Prince Vereinskoi, and Seriaitine bounded upon him. 
Paul rose for a space, but fell again. All this scuffle 
passed in the dark, amid the groans and outcries, now 
loud, then stifled. But at last the Czar disembarrassed 
himself of the hand upon his mouth. 



212 



XTbe IRomance of a (Tsartcl^c 

"Gentlemen," he said, in French, "spare me — the 
time to pray — " 

The last words were smothered, for one of the 
assailants had taken off his sash and wound it around 
the imperial body, as they dared not pass it around 
his neck, lest the marks should show. They wanted 
the death to pass as natural. The moans became a 
death-rattle, which soon expired. The convulsive 
spasms ceased, and when Benningsen brought lights 
they shone on the dead monarch. 

While they were staring at the corpse, in the mo- 
mentary lull, a noise was heard at the inner doors. 
The Empress was coming hither, having heard the 
conflict and the mingled cries. This frightened the 
murderers at the first, but, recognizing the woman's 
voice, they resumed courage. Besides, the door was 
sealed against her by Paul, and consequently they had 
time to finish their task without being disturbed. 

Benningsen lifted up the Emperor's head, and, no- 
ticing no movement, carried him to the couch. Pahlen 
then came in, sword in hand ; faithful to his dual part, 
he had waited till all was over to take his rank among 
the victors. On seeing the victim, over whose face 
Benningsen threw a rug, he stopped short on the sill, 
pale, letting his sword hang by his side. 

" Cheer up, gentlemen," said Benningsen, one of 
the latest to join the party, but the only cool hand all 
the fatal night. " It is time to bear homage to the 
new king ! " 

213 



CelebtateO Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

" Ay, ay ! " tumultuously called out many voices, 
more eager to be out of the room than they had been 
to enter it. " Let us hail the new Emperor ! Long 
live Alexander ! " 

Meanwhile, the Empress had come around by an- 
other way ; the soldiers wiere disputing her way, when 
the rebels came out of the imperial bedroom, shouting 
their new slogan. The Czarina recognized Benningsen 
at the front, and, accosting him by name, begged him 
to let her pass in. 

" Madame, all is finished now," he said, bluntly. 
" Paul's days are ended, and you will only injure yours 
uselessly ! " 

The Empress fell into an easy chair. The two 
princesses knelt by her. They called for water lest 
she should swoon. A soldier offered a tumbler, but 
the Grand Duchess Maria would not let her drink for 
fear it should be poisoned. The guardsman guessed 
the doubt, for he tossed off half the water, and said : 

"You see that? Her Majesty may take the rest 
without fear ! " 

Benningsen left the lady in this filial care, and went 
down-stairs to the crown prince's rooms. As they 
were just below, he had heard all, — exclamations, 
groans, shuffling of feet, the falls. The first impulse 
was to run for help, but Pahlen had set guards who 
held him captive, and he could do nothing. 

Benningsen arrived with his supporters. Their 
cheers of " The Czar Alexander for ever ! " revealed 

214 



Ube IRomance of a Csarictbe 

that all was over. The manner in which he would 
mount the throne could be no mystery to him, and, 
for that matter, he addressed Pahlen, who was in the 
rear : 

" Ah, count, what a page to commence my history ! '* 

" Sire, what is recorded on the after pages will 
blot out the first." 

" But do you not believe that I shall be called my 
father's murderer ? " 

" At this moment there is only one thing to think 
of ! " suggested the arch conspirator. 

" Good Heavens, would you have me think of any- 
thing but my father's death? " 

" You must be recognized by the army ! " 

"But my mother — what has become of her?" 
asked the prince. 

" She is in safety. But for your part, lose no 
time ! " 

The heir was so prostrated as to be incapable of a 
move. 

" Sire, please to follow me straightway, for the 
least delay may bring horrible results ! " 

Alexander let them do with him as they willed. He 
was conducted to the carriage engaged to convey Paul 
into captivity. The door was closed on the sorrowing 
prince; Pahlen and Zuboff got up on the footmen's 
board, and, escorted by two battalions of the guards, 
the vehicle carrying the fate of Russia set off for the 
Winter Palace. Alexander's last request had been 

215 



Celebtate& Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

for his mother, and Benningsen remained caring for 
her. 

On Admiralty Square the principal palace troops 
were stationed. 

" Hail the Emperor ! " shouted Pahlen and his ac- 
complice, pointing to Alexander to indicate that they 
had the sovereign. 

" Long live the Czar ! " shouted the soldiers, in one 
voice. 

A rush was made for the doors, whence they ex- 
tracted Alexander more dead than alive. He was 
borne in triumph, and acclaimed with an enthusiasm 
which proved that the conspirators, in committing a 
crime, had fulfilled a popular desire. Whatever the 
new king's thirst for vengeance, he had to renounce 
punishing the murderers. 

The surgeons found that the late Emperor had died 
of apoplexy; the wound on the head was due to a 
fall after the stroke. The embalmed body lay in 
state for a fortnight, and Alexander had to appear 
by it several times, but he came away pale or weep- 
ing. 

But, gradually, the conspirators were removed from 
the court. Some received foreign missions, some were 
ordered with their regiments into Siberia. None re- 
mained but Count Pahlen, still military governor of 
the capital. But the sight of him was remorse for the 
new ruler. The first occasion would be leaped at to 
procure his alienation. 

216 



Zbc IRomance ot a CsartctDe 

A few days after Paul's death, a priest exhibited a 
sacred picture, which he asserted was brought him 
by an angel; on the edge was written the line: " God 
will punish Paul's murderers ! " Informed that the 
people were flocking to the spot where this image 
was displayed, and conjecturing that the mob might 
act on such a hint, Pahlen asked leave to deal with the 
priest. It was given, and the holy man was flogged, 
but he cried out under the lash that he had done noth- 
ing except under the Empress's orders. As a proof, 
he assured Pahlen's officers that she had such another 
picture in her oratory. Pahlen did find the replica 
in that place, and had it taken forth. The Czarina 
justly declared this an outrage, and demanded satis- 
faction of her son. As the latter was hunting up a 
pretext for exiling the minister, he took care not to 
let this slip. He was ordered to retire to his estates. 

" I so clearly expected this," said the count, " that 
my trunks are already packed ! " 

In an hour he sent back to the Emperor all his 
offices and posts, and started in the evening for Riga. 



217 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE ROMAN cists' REVOLUTION 
(1825) 

In 1822 was held the Congress of Verona. It was 
the sovereigns' league against the people's. The Czar 
Alexander broke away from Napoleon I. and adhered 
to the other monarchs to make war against liberty. 
He returned home and suppressed all liberal move- 
ments, in spite of pledges to the Muscovite reforms, 
and forbade not only Freemasonry, but all associa- 
tions for debate and agitation of improvements. 

A great corporation existed in his realm at the time, 
publicly, occupied with general progress, education, 
and instruction. It became a private body forthwith, 
and split into two portions, which took the titles of 
the Northern and the Southern Society. The moder- 
ates clung to the former, and the extremists to the 
latter. The first chose Nikita Muravief for chief, and 
the other had Pestel. The Northern merely cast out 
the lukewarm, the other slew the backsliders. 

Alexander had become detached from mundane 
matters, from remorse about what evil he had allowed 
to be done, mysticism, love of the sex, and a seeking 

of ease. He knew that a conspiracy of consequence 

218 



Zbc IRomancists' 1Re\>olutton 

was hatching, but he paid no heed to it. He heartily 
knew that the regenerators were right, and, from ad- 
vances he had made toward them, they had right on 
their side. 

The catastrophe was felt to be impending. The 
state was in that indefinable condition when a man 
would have said : " I shall have to be worse to get 
better! " 

After travelling, as much to avoid assassins as to 
reheve himself of ailments which hunted him like a 
pack of hounds, the Emperor Alexander succumbed 
to the fever which had been raging from Sevastopol 
to Taganrog, where he died. 

His death had been accelerated by proof arriving 
that his army was honeycombed by treachery. He 
had time to write to this effect to the Grand Duke 
Constantine, Viceroy of Poland, and to the Grand 
Duke Nicholas, in whose favour Constantine had 
secretly abdicated. So it was to the true heir desig- 
nated that couriers ran as the patient was menaced 
with death. 

The tidings which produced such a terrible effect 
on the dying sovereign were as follows : 

Through chance or suspicion, Colonel Scheikowski, 
commanding the Saratoff Regiment, which was relied 
on to seize the Czar, the Grand Duke Nicholas, and 
General Diebetsch, the chief of staff, was removed 
from his post. 

This displacement threw trouble into the ardent 
219 



(releI)tate^ Ctlme0 of tbe IRussian Court 

Southern Society. What would ensue if other regi- 
ments on which it rehed, through their commanders, 
were likewise beheaded? It was resolved to '' raise " 
some troops and march upon Kief, while sending 
assassins to murder Alexander, as he would not " die 
timely." There was no doubt that the sudden death 
of the autocrat would bring about a rupture between 
Nicholas and Constantine — perhaps civil war, out of 
which a republic would be formed. 

Colonel Artamon Muravief offered to go and kill the 
Czar. But it was held more vital that he should stay 
with his Hussar Regiment and lead it. But the secret 
service had warned Alexander, and his letters to 
Nicholas and Constantine set the counter-revolution in 
action a little too soon. 

Pestel was arrested. This struck the head off the 
Southern Association. Its members and those of the 
Northern one learnt at the same time both of Alex- 
ander's death and of his appointing Constantine his 
successor, though he had renounced his birthright on 
marrying the Princess von Lowics. 

Ignorant just yet of Pestel's arrest, the bands hoped 
to see a conflict between the imperial brothers. Two 
days before the outbreak there was a large and en- 
thusiastic meeting at Prince Trubetskoi's mansion. 
Prince Obolinski repeated, having clearer sight than 
the body : 

" I know we are going to die for it ; but what 



220 



Ube 1Romanctst5' IRevolutton 

glory for us and what a brilliant example to the 
world!" 

It was given out that, in two days, Nicholas would 
be proclaimed to ascend the throne. It was agreed 
that all should then meet on the Senate Square, with 
all the soldiers they could bring, but to be there in 
person, even though they had to come alone. They 
flattered themselves that their demonstration would be 
so convincing that the new Czar would enter into 
terms with them. Prince Trubetskoi was to head the 
troops which would refuse the oath of allegiance. 

The fourteenth of December arrived. Arbuzoff and 
other leaders found the naval forces refusing to take 
the oath for the envoy, Major-General Schipoff. He 
ordered their disobedient chiefs under arrest, where- 
upon, as several shots were fired in the scuffle, Nicholas 
Bestuchef interrupted with : 

*' Do you hear that, lads ? Your mates are being 
massacred ! " 

He lead the battalion out of the barracks, and the 
officers followed without exactly participating. The 
revolt was quite as complete in the Moscow Regi- 
ment, where the emissaries repeated to the rank and 
file: 

" It's a cheat to try to get you to take that oath ! 
The Grand Duke Constantine has not given up the 
crown ! He is a prisoner, along with the Grand Duke 
Michael, our honorary colonel ! " 

"Czar Constantine will double your pay!" added 

221 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

Michael Bestuchef. " Down with all who betray the 
Grand Duke Constantine ! " 

Together with Prince Stchepine, he ordered the 
soldiers to load with ball cartridge. The prince com- 
manded them to take the grenadiers' flag. He him- 
self flew at General Freidrich and knocked him down 
with a sword-cut across the head; attacked General 
Schonshine and wounded him, and successively felled 
the colonel, a sub-officer, and a private grenadier. He 
thus cut his way to the colours, which he grasped, and, 
followed by the mutineering companies, hurried with 
his trophy to the Senate. 

Prodigies of daring had been performed on their 
part by Yakubowitch and Kakovski. The latter had 
burst into the residence of the famous Miloradowitch, 
known as " the Russian Murat," governor of St. 
Petersburg, and mortally wounded him with a pistol- 
shot at pointblank. With another shot he slew a 
major. 

Kukelbeker had raised his firearm against the Grand 
Duke Michael, but the sailors had stayed his hand. 

It is easy to picture the dreadful tumult around the 
Senate-house. All sorts of news flocked upon the new 
monarch, but the clear one was of the revolt. He 
afforded an example of his character, not once belied 
during his thirty years' reign. 

Instead of dallying with the rebels, as they had 
expected, he ordered a major-general to carry the 
command to the Simionovski Guards Regiment to 

222 




CZAR NICHOLAS I. 



XTbe IRomanctsts' IRevolution 

charge the mutineers and the Horse-guards to be ready 
to back them at a word. He went himself to the 
Winter Palace Barracks, occupied by the Finland 
Guards, and ordered them to load with ball and 
occupy the principal roads to the palace. 

At this juncture Admiralty Place crackled with the 
uproar. It was the arrival of the two companies of 
the Moscow Regiment, led by Prince Stchepine and 
the brothers Bestuchef. The men shouted under the 
flying colours and as the drums beat : 

*' Down with Nicholas! Constantine for ever!" 

The Winter Palace was not then guarded, but they 
turned aside to be backed by the Senate-house. The 
Foot Grenadier Guards joined them, together with 
some fifty men in gentlemen's attire, but armed with 
pistols and daggers. 

This was the moment when the Emperor appeared, 
under an archway of the palace, and took a glance 
at the multitude. He was pale, as never before 
noticed, but quite calm. He had often been seen in 
his career headlong, furious, and ill-tempered, but 
weak — never ! 

In the direction of the Marble Palace was heard 
the gallop of horses. It was the Horse-guards con- 
ducted by Count Alexis Orloff, natural son of the 
fourth Orloff, Feodor Gregoriewitch. 

The palace gates were opened for the newcomer, 
who rode through, dismounted, and ranged his men 
before the building. About this time the drums of 

223 



<reIebrate^ (Trtmes of tbe IRussian Court 

the Preobrajenski Regiment were heard. Arriving by 
battahons, they added to the guards around the Em- 
peror, the Empress, and the young crown prince. The 
Noble Guards were forming a square behind them, 
with a gap at the angle to let their field-pieces be 
fired. 

The insurgents watched all these defensive measures 
without other hostile demonstration than cheers for 
their choice and hooting against Nicholas. They were 
waiting for reinforcements. There had been some 
calling for " The Constitution ! " but as the soldiers 
wanted to know who that was, and the only appeasing 
reply was that it meant Duke Constantine's wife, that 
war-cry was given up as not productive of enthusiasm. 
The Grand Duke Michael was said to be arrested, but 
he was running about from one military barracks to 
another, protesting with his presence. At the Moscow 
Regiment quarters he found two companies off for 
mischief, but he retained the rest. Count Lieven, cap- 
tain of the fifth company, arrived, and ordered the 
gates to be shut. Placing himself before his men, 
he drew his sword and vowed to run it through any 
disobedient soldier. A young subaltern rushed up to 
him and clapped a pistol to his breast. The count 
knocked it out of his grasp with the sword-pommel, 
but the subaltern ran and picked it up for a fresh 
attack. Whereupon Lieven, folding his arms, walked 
up to him, defying him to murder his superior in cold 

blood. The regiment looked on silently and immov- 

224 



XTbe IRomanctsts' iRevolutlon 

ably at this strange duel, when the lieutenant pulled 
the trigger — but it missed fire. 

Then came a pounding on the gates. 

" It's the Grand Duke Michael ! " answered the ar- 
rival — the Emperor's brother. 

Deep stupor succeeded the words, as the prince was 
said to be a prisoner. But in he rode, accompanied 
by a few officers. 

"What means this inaction amid danger?" de- 
manded he. " Am I among traitors or faithful sol- 
diers?" 

" Your Highness is among the faithfulest regiment 
of all," replied Count Lieven, " and I can prove it! " 
He waved his sword and cried aloud : " Long live 
the Czar Nicholas ! " 

With one voice came the soldiers' reply — a true 
echo. The subaltern was going to remonstrate, but 
his captain caught him by the arm, saying: 

" Do you not see you have lost your game ! Hush 
up, or cheer ! I shall not accuse you ! " 

The prince entrusted Lieven with the whole regi- 
ment and resumed his course, meeting obedience if 
not enthusiasm. 

So the news heaping upon the Emperor was good. 
Reinforcements arrived also from every hand; the 
sappers held the Hermitage Palace in line of battle, 
and Lieven brought the balance of the Moscow Regi- 
ment out upon the Newski Prospective. This sight 
aroused the revolutionists into glee, as they thought 

225 



Cele^)rate^ Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

they were friends, but, instead of joining them, they 
marched over to the Tribunals Building, facing the 
palace, which, with the heavy dragoons, artillery, and 
the Noble Guards, encircled the insurgents in an iron 
wall. 

Just then arose the chanting of priests. The Metro- 
politan was seen, with all his clergy, marching out 
of Kasan Church, preceded by the holy pictures 
(ikons). 

He ordered return to allegiance and duty. But as 
the corruption and ignorance of the clergy at the time 
was one of the causes of the outbreak, several of the 
rebel chiefs left their ranks and vociferated to the 
priests : 

" Back ! Do not meddle with worldly matters ! " 

Nicholas feared that there would be an attack on 
the religious men, and also ordered them to keep 
aloof. He was obeyed. The Emperor tried to make 
an effort to restore peace, but at the first step those 
about him offered to stay him. With the tone which 
never was withstood, he responded : 

" Gentlemen, I am playing a game for my crown ! 
I must set my life at stake ! Open the gates ! " 

He went forward to the threshold. 

He saw the Grand Duke Michael rush up at a 
gallop, alight, and come to his brother, to tell him in 
a whisper : 

" A part of the Preobrajenski Regiment " — by 
whom the Emperor was actually surrounded — " is 

226 



Ube IRomanctsts' 1Ret>olution 

unsound, and Prince Trubetskoi is at the head of the 
rebels ! " 

This cowed the Czar, who reflected briefly. But 
he was only the more fixed in his determination. He 
called for his son, who was led to him, a boy of seven. 
He lifted him up between his hands. 

" Soldiers, if I am killed, this is your Czar ! Open 
your ranks! I trust him to your loyalty! " 

And he thrust the boy in among the grenadiers. 
Yet these old soldiers were the very ones who guarded 
the Michael Palace while their Emperor Paul was 
strangled within it. A heart-sprung cheer burst out, 
and the worst affected were the foremost to stretch 
out their hands to welcome the prince. He was car- 
ried into the centre under the colours. The father 
mounted a horse and rode forth. 

At the outside the generals flung themselves before 
him and begged him to go no farther; it was de- 
clared that the insurgents aimed at his life, and all 
their guns were loaded to kill. But the Czar insisted 
that he relied on the Higher Power, and that he would 
go, though it should be alone. He rode over to the 
rebels, and, stopping within pistol-range, said : 

'' Soldiers, I am told that you seek my hfe! If that 
is true — here I am. Fire on me ! and let God decide 
who is right ! " 

Some one did call out "Fire!" three times, but 
only at the last cry was it obeyed. Some twenty shots 

resounded, but they whistled around the target; not 

227 



CelebrateC) Crimea of tbe IRussian Court 

one struck. On the other hand, behind him, a colonel 
and several soldiers were hit. 

The Grand Duke Michael hurried out and over to 
the spot, the dragoons broke ranks and hastened, and 
the artillerists revived the fire of their linstocks. 

" Halt ! " the Emperor bade them. 

But Count Orloff and his men had surrounded their 
chief, and forced him back into the palace, while 
Prince Michael plucked a match from the gunner's 
hand and set it to a piece, shouting: 

" Fire ! Fire on the murderers ! " 

Four guns, crammed with shrapnel, went off at the 
same time as the one he discharged. 

Without its being possible to hear any counter-order 
from the sovereign, a second discharge followed the 
first. At musket-shot range, the effect was monstrous. 
More than sixty grenadiers, as well as Moscow men, 
were stretched on the ground. The rest took flight 
by the streets and bridges and upon the frozen river. 
The Noble Guardsmen set in pursuit of the fugitives. 

All was finished. 

A plot of five years' preparation, the romantic hope 
of freedom for eighty millions, — for the conspirators 
had embraced Poles and Russians without any dis- 
tinction, — all melted away in a day ! I say in a day, 
for it was the same day as Pestel was arrested in 
South Russia. 

Pestel had only time to shout out to Prince Sergius 

Wolkonski, in German : 

228 



tTbe IRomanctsts' IRevolution 

"Fear nothing! Save my Russian Code!" (His 
draft of the Laws.) " I shall make no revelations! " 

The prince and Matthew Muravief were taken at 
the same time, but were rescued by high members in 
the United Slavonic Society. As soon as thus freed, 
Muravief attempted to accomplish a rising in the 
Tchernikof Regiment, and succeeded. He decided to 
proceed toward Kief to make a junction with others 
of the Slavonic Society. The chaplain said mass, and 
read to the military a new catechism composed for 
the occasion. But the soldiers did not understand a 
bit of it, the argument being that democratic govern- 
ment was pleasing to Heaven, so they had to employ, 
as at the capital, the name of the Grand Duke Con- 
stantine to have a rallying cry. 

On the march the chief learnt that some troops on 
which he counted were not where he reckoned, and he 
was retreating, when he was set upon by General 
Geismar and his Hussars, who were following him. 
Deeming that he ought not to waver, the rebel charged 
at the artillery in the rear, but was fired upon. Ser- 
gius Muravief fell from a graze of a fragment of 
case-shot, but, though only stunned, when he awoke 
in ten minutes he had no men to rally — they had 
fled. His brother Matthew, seeing that all was lost, 
blew out his brains. Two others of the family were 
arrested. 

The trials of the revolutionists in the south and at 
the capital were made one. The inquiry lasted over 

229 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussfan Court 

four months. The principal charges fell upon five 
heads, — Paul Pestel, Conrad Ryleief, Sergius Mura- 
vief-Apostol, Michael Bestuchef, and Peter Kakovski, 
— all remarkable men. 

Pestel was barely thirty. Though the name is Ger- 
man, he was Russian born. His father was, about this 
year, 1825, in poor circumstances. He had been a 
provincial governor, but, falling a victim to false 
accusations, was dismissed with censure. The un- 
merited blame was embittered in his son, educated at 
Dresden, who had entered into the corps of imperial 
pages at St. Petersburg. Becoming ensign, he won 
a captaincy, and figured in the campaign in France. 
He caned some Bavarian soldiers for maltreating 
French peasants at Bar-sur-Aube. Returning home 
as aid-de-camp to General Wittgenstein, he was pro- 
moted to be colonel of the Viatka foot regiment. 

Pestel was small in stature, but supple and strong, 
as well as shapely; his bodily activity was proverbial. 
He was rated cunning, tricky, and ambitious. His 
intelligence was surely high. His authority was sub- 
mitted to, even by those feeling no sympathy for him. 
One of these comrades was Ryleief, a lofty mind him- 
self, and Alexander Bestuchef. Pestel had conceived 
the secret society ; he had drawn up the Russian Code ; 
in short, it was his voice was always heard when 
decisive projects and extreme measures were called for. 

It was asserted that he was a republican in the 
Bonapartist style, and not the Washingtonian — but 

230 



XTbe 1Romanci9t6' IRevolutton 

who could tell? His death came before he could show 
his work. His death was terrible, and all was done 
to make it ignominious. Calumny might spare the 
dead. 

Conrad Ryleief was a poet. In his poem, " Voina- 
romescki," dedicated to his friend Bestuchef, he pre- 
dicted both their deaths, like the man who walked 
around Jerusalem, crying out ^'Woe!" for six days, 
and on the seventh cried " Woe to me ! '' and was 
beheaded by a stone. Listen to this prophet : 

" I know that one who seeks to be the first to strike 
His tyrants, treads upon the crumbling edge of gulfs ; 
I grant that fate makes such its victim sure to fall, 
But to my mother-earth I make return of life ; 
I feel that never shall mine eyes behold the flame 
Of that bright day by godly oracles foretold. 
I feel, I know, I grant ! but in my placid soul, 
I vow, the blood of martyrs never flowed in vain ! " 

Sergius Muravief-Apostol was lieutenant-colonel of 
the Tchernikof foot regiment, a distinguished officer, 
resolute, hearty in sentiment, liberal by education. 

He had belonged to the plot from the start. His 
double name indicates that he belonged to the Muravief 
family, which has given Russia remarkable sons, and 
to Apostol, Hetman of the Cossacks. His father had 
been ambassador to the Hanseatic League and to 
Spain, and was a Senator. He had to bewail the loss 
of his three sons, one dead by his own hand, one 
hanged, and one exiled. They had been his pride and 

231 



Celebratet) Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

glory. I knew him well, when he was living in Flor- 
ence, for he would not dwell in Russia where he might 
not weep over them. Through his tears, he told me 
that he had never to complain of any of them. He 
was a distinguished philologist, a strong Hellenist, 
having published translations from the classics into 
his own tongue. He composed a Greek ode in the 
memory of the Emperor Alexander, which he also set 
in Latin ; his favourite reading was the " Prome- 
theus " of ^schylus. 

Sergius was a man of letters, if not an author. His 
other name was more imperative than his Russian one. 
It recalled the confederation of free war-chiefs, whose 
elective rule spread in Little Russia those ideals of 
independence still extant. His forefather, Daniel 
Apostol, elected Hetman of the Cossacks in 1727, had 
energetically defended his country against Peter L's 
encroachments ; long captivity had repaid him for that 
patriotism. These memories of independence, his 
youthful glories, had tormented him in manhood. He 
and his brother Matthew had been inseparable; but 
death parted them, and exile parted Sergius from 
Matthew's tomb. 

The fourth arraigned, Michael Bestuchef, — an 
obscure relative of the Empress Anna's famous chan- 
cellor, who came out of Courland with Biren to direct 
foreign affairs for Russia under the Empress Eliza- 
beth, — was a sub-lieutenant in the Pultawa Regiment, 
and thus had been brought into the plot. As for 

232 




CZARINA ELIZABETH. 



Ubc IRomancists' IRevolution 

Kakovski, he was merely a soldier and a conspirator. 
He conspired, fought, and died. Ask no more! 

Besides these five, the order comprised seven princes, 
two counts, three barons, two generals, thirteen colo- 
nels, and ten lieutenant-colonels. There were over 
120 accused. 

In abolishing capital punishment. Czarina Elizabeth 
had preserved it for high treason; or, to be more 
precise, had omitted to exclude that. But she had 
made a vow not to administer death in her time. But 
she allowed the knout and the rods, under which death 
may ensue, though not so " written in the bond." The 
judge knows, as well as the executioner, that no one 
can outlive a hundred strokes of the knout or two 
thousand of the ramrod. The high court condemned 
five of the tried ones to be quartered. These were 
Pestel, Ryleief, Sergius Muravief-Apostol, Michael 
Bestuchef, and Kakovski. One and thirty were to be 
beheaded ; seventeen were to be sent into hard labour 
for life, after having to lay their heads on the heads- 
man's block and lose their civic rights; two were 
given merely hard labour for life ; thirty had the same 
penalty for a shorter period, but then to end in eternal 
exile. Eighteen were sent into Siberia, with military 
degradation and deprivation of nobility; while eight 
had to enter the army as privates, but not losing noble 
rank, and these might win their epaulets. 

All but one of the 120 accused were doomed. The 



233 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRussian Court 

examination was secret, and nothing but the result was 
pubHshed. 

The Emperor had wished to speak with some of 
the culprits. He questioned Ryleief. 

^' Sire," said the poet, who had foretold his own 
death, " I was well aware that the enterprise would 
ruin me, but the seed we scatter will germinate, and in 
time bear fruit ! " 

The Czar then questioned Nicholas Bestuchef, say- 
ing to him : 

" Sir, the steadiness of your mould pleases me ; I 
might overlook this if I could be sure that I would 
find you a faithful servitor in the future." 

'' Why, Sire, that is just the matter we complain of," 
was the reply ; " that the Czar may do as he pleases 
in matters of life and death, and has no law for the 
people against his pleasure. Do not change anything 
in the law's course as regards me, my lord! I pray 
this in Heaven's name! But let the fate of your 
subjects depend no more on your momentary whims 
and impressions! " 

Nicholas further questioned Michael, Nicholas 
Bestuchef's brother. 

'' I do not repent of anything," said the last Bes- 
tuchef, simply. " I die satisfied and sure that I shall 
be avenged ! " 

This made the Czar thoughtful for a long time. 
Was his faith in his mission and in his infallibility 
shaken ? 

234 



Ube iRomancfsts' IRevolutton 

Do not imagine it. For when the old Senator 
Lapukine brought him the sentences to sign, he began 
with those dooming Pestel and the other leaders to 
be quartered, and with a firm hand wrote '" Byt po 
cemu! " ('' So be it done! ") as he signed, under that, 
" Nicholas." The Senate president, who had not 
winced at the mad Paul's follies, turned pale at this 
sombre and severe justice in so young a ruler. 

Nicholas was inaugurating his reign by an unex- 
ampled execution, one which had no example previous 
to that of the Gleboff conspiracy, wherein one of the 
Lapukines, ancestor of the Senator presenting these 
decrees, had been concerned. Nicholas noticed this 
twinge. When a boy, he had written in his common- 
place book that Ivan the Terrible was merely a strict 
observer of justice. From his point of view as Im- 
perial Majesty, he stood on his rights, and this very 
fate may have seemed to him light enough. 

"What ails you, Lapukine?" he asked. *' Is the 
court having sport and was not this trial made con- 
scientiously ? " 

'' Truly, Sire ; but it may be that the court pro- 
nounced thus severely that your Majesty might derive 
credit for clemency ! " 

** I can approve a court decree, for I merely con- 
firm in that case; but I should condemn, if I alter 
the doom. Tell the court that, while maintaining the 
death penalty, it may make any change it likes." 

He tore up the paper that a new one might be pre- 
235 



Celebrate& Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

sented. But he commuted the decree of decapitation 
against the thirty-eight of the second category to hard 
labour for life. He also made some alterations to 
soften the other penalties. 

The culprits awarded quartering were allowed to be 
hanged! Clemency replaced the cruel death by a 
shameful one ! The wretches had expected to be shot 
or decapitated. The gallows had been done away with 
in Russia, although Peter had exterminated the re- 
volting Strelitz Guard thereby. 

Nicholas signed the fresh sentences, gave the con- 
demned twenty-four hours' grace for making peace 
with heaven and earth, and went off to his country- 
seat. 

Nobody could tell the effect of the kindness for the 
condemned, as they all heard the amelioration read 
with impassive faces and without making any observa- 
tion. All accepted religious succour. 

Ryleief gave his holy attendant a gold snuff-box to 
pass a letter to his wife; those who know what the 
Russian priesthood were, at that age, will not be 
surprised at the high amount of the postal service. 

All remained calm, Pestel more than the rest, re- 
nouncing none of his beliefs, repenting none of his 
deeds, and remaining to the end convinced of the 
wisdom and timeliness of the principles in his " Rus- 
sian Rights of Man." 

Since the Wolkonski execution, eighty years ago, 
St. Petersburg had not seen an official mutilation, or 

236 



Ube IRomanclsts' IRevoIution 

a mortal execution. It was going to be amply recom- 
pensed. 

Very early on the morning of the 25th of July, 
though the execution was not fixed until ten o'clock, 
a large gibbet was erected on the citadel rampart so 
that it showed five faces. It fronted on that small 
wooden church, the Trinity, situated on Neva bank, 
where Peter the Great settled first, the old ward of 
the capital. 

At this summertide, the night begins at eleven and 
ends at two in the morning. In the dawn, then, when 
one can barely distinguish objects, drums, faintly 
" ruffling " in the barracks, and a few bugle-blasts 
were heard; for every regiment of the garrison was 
to send one company to be present at the ceremony. 
Passers-by afoot at that hour, others awakened by the 
preparations, gathered on the scene. As the companies 
arrived, they were ranked under the fortress walls. 
At three all the drums resounded : it was sunrise. 

Only two or three hundred spectators assembled to 
face the troops, and, as the execution was to take 
place overhead on the rampart, all could see, over the 
helmets and musket-barrels. 

A second rolling of the drums was heard. On the 
pure and limpid dawning light were clearly outlined 
the doomed spared from the capital punishment. They 
came forth in groups, each placed before the regiment 
he had belonged to, with the gallows at the back. 
Their sentence was read to them. They were made to 

237 



(Telebrateb Crimes of tbe IRussfan Court 

kneel, when their uniforms, decorations, and shoulder- 
knots were torn off from them. On their shaven heads 
their swords were broken in twain ; they were slapped 
on the cheek with the epithet '' Vlohl " (" Traitor! ") 
Coarse overcoats were flung upon them, and they were 
made to file before the gallows, where all their cast-off 
things were flung into a huge brazier, to be burnt. 
Then one by one they were returned into the fort. 

Not till then were the five doomed to death brought 
out upon the wall. On reaching the stage they were 
seated on stools in a line, according to the order 
arraigned: Pestel the first on the extreme left, next 
Ryleief, and so on; Kakovski was on the far right. 
The halters were passed around their necks, actually 
over the cowls, as though to prolong the act of 
strangulation — whether by stupidity or design. The 
hangman retired after this. As soon as he had gone 
the platform gave way like a large trap-door under 
the five. The sight was atrocious. The men at the 
ends of the file, Pestel and Kakovski, dropped and 
swung, slowly becoming corpses. But the three others 
slipped through the running nooses, and broke through 
the hole with their stools. Though the Russian mob 
is not demonstrative, several spectators did murmur 
and cry out with fright and horror, if not with pain. 
Yet even these may have been foreigners " not to the 
manner born." 

The assistants had to go down and search for the 

bodies, which were in the grave too soon! The first 

238 



Ube IRomanctsts' IRevolutton 

to be found was Muravief-Apostol. His hands being 
bound, he could not use them to break his fall. 

" God knows," said he, on seeing daylight again, 
" that it is hard to die twice for dreaming of one's 
country's freedom ! " 

They made him wait on the platform. 

The second was Ryleief. 

''Lord! what is an enslaved people good for!" 
sneered he. '' You do not know even how to hang 
a man properly ! " 

He was set by Muravief, while they brought up 
Bestuchef, who had broken his left leg in the fall. 

'' Was it written on high," he remarked to his 
fellows, " that nothing succeeds with us — not even 
our being hanged? " 

As he could not stand, they laid him along by the 
rest. 

Every quarter of an hour the news as to how the 
execution was progressing was sent off by courier to 
the Czar at Tzarsko^Celo. But the fact of three 
ropes breaking was so unimportant that it was not 
brought to his notice. Those who neglected that inci- 
dent ought to have felt eternal regret. At that grim 
story, so unheard of at such an occasion, even that 
bronze heart might have melted and mercy been ac- 
corded. 

No; the platform was raised and set again, and, 
between the two dead men, the three were stood up 
with the ropes readjusted — at least Bestuchef was 

239 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

held up. The operation was renewed without any 
break this time, and the three culprits, whose death 
had made them martyrs, lost their souls to join their 
comrades'. 

The other condemned ones went into prison or 
exile. They endured incredible sufferings and showed 
marvellous devotion. After Nicholas's long reign, re- 
lease came to them by Alexander's ascension. Thirty 
years ! It is long, very long ! But God measures the 
reigns, and who can rate the amount of leaven for 
liberty which, in thirty years, ripens in the human heart 
and in the deep bosom of the earth during oppression ? 

Who knows what will yet issue out of that Siberia, 
bedewed with women's tears and men's brow-drops? 
Who dares to say that one of these days Irkutsk and 
Tobolsk will not be capitals of two republics? 

Some day Russia will raise a monument to the 
martyrs of the Pestel Plot. 



240 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE ROMANCE OF A POET 
(PUSHKINE^ 1799 - 1837) 

PusHKiNE is very little known to the reading world, 
and that little badly, because of indirect translations; 
but he is nationally popular in Russia — as a Schiller 
in Germany, for instance. Apart from him and the 
fabulist Kriloff, Russia brought forth no writers up 
to the Emperor Alexander I/s reign. From their 
works date the intellectual era. 

In 1799, in the governmental district of Pskof, 
Pushkine was born. He was the son of a landed 
proprietor, grandson on the mother's side of Hanni- 
bal, a negro belonging to Czar Peter the First. This 
Hannibal had been captured on the Guinea coast, 
and, carried away by a slaver, leaped overboard fifty 
miles out at sea, with no hope of swimming to land ; 
but even the hope of drowning was frustrated by a 
boat being lowered for him. Rescued, he was put in 
irons and stowed away in the hold until landed at 
Holland, where he was sold : it was the period of a 
rage among gentility for ** the black boys." It was 
at Amsterdam that Peter saw him. His story being 

241 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

told, the Russ was touched by such a spirit of free- 
dom in a negro, and, redeeming him, took him into 
Russia. The intehigent African reached the grade 
of general and founded the Russian artillery. 

Dolgoruski's " Notice on Eminent Russian Fami- 
lies " asserts that the Pushkines are of an ancient 
family of German origin, which gave several boyards 
(princes) to their adopted country in the eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries; but we believe nothing of 
the sort. Perhaps these families sought to gild their 
refined gold with Pushkine's literary metal, but in 
his lifetime nobody thought of that — or them. 

When assailed by Bulgarin, in his newspaper, on 
his lowliness of origin, he replied by verses and an 
epigram, which may be put in bald prose thus : 

" This Bulgarin gentleman treats me as a helot, 
and decides that my grandsire Hannibal was bought 
for a glass of rum by a ship pilot on the Senegal's 
bank. I grant it; but he ought to add to the jest that 
this heaven-guided pilot, by steering the Ship of 
Russian State, its prow in America and its stern in 
Asia, joined the fiery seas with the frozen one." 

Educated in the Tzarsko-Celo Imperial Lyceum, 
founded by Alexander in 1811, Pushkine was an exe- 
crably bad scholar. Entering the first year of its 
foundation, he was still a student in 18 18, when he 
wrote an " Ode to Freedom," which he threw in the 
air as the Emperor came along ; the latter picked it up 
and read it. The lines were so insulting to tyrants, 

242 



Ube IRomance of a poet 

and particularly Paul I. and his '' accursed breed/' 
that the Czar's indulgence does credit to the author's 
genius. Still, we paraphrase it with a view of showing 
how far, even a hundred years ago, Russian poetry 
ventured tO' fly. 

''Thou diadem'd rascal (Paul), whom I abhor in 
my soul with all thy breed ! The sweetest of my days 
will have been that one whose dawn saw the ruin 
of ye all! As your frightened subjects saw you pass, 
and marked the brand upon your brow, they bade you 
* Farewell ! ' as a universal terror, shame to man-- 
kind, and a living curse ! 

" When that pale torch of Night, the waning moon, 
dies on the gloomy stream, amid complete repose, the 
poet's careworn gaze dwells on one point in the dark 
(The Red Palace) : that black pile where no fire 
cheers — a sinister sepulchre wrapped in a pall (the 
Czar Paul), sadly bathed in the fog, but more densely 
sunk to us in oblivion. 

" But the dreamy poet is soon roused by hearing, 
like an ominous echo from its walls, the lugubrious 
trump of avenging Clio! Then rises, like the tide of 
midnight, the mysterious band in golden stars and 
brilliant ribbons over heartless breasts; their looks 
disquieted and their feet shuffling, like convicts', in list 
slippers. The faithless sentinel hushes his noisy chal- 
lenge to let them steal by, over the beetling citadel's 
suppliant drawbridge — yielding up the master he was 
sworn to defend, and opening passage with his venal 

243 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

hand. In the interior darkness, the crowned scoundrel 
runs with his soul foredoomed, yelling as he falls, 
and is pierced with death. 

" What a lesson for you, Czars ! When God com- 
mands, ' It is time ! ' all fade away — police and 
spies, your torturers, and your hangmen, whose gibbets 
swung the martyrs nearer unto heaven! Oh, Czars, 
if ye would save your fragile crowns, give up your 
sanguinary decrees; and place as guards upon your 
throne-steps. Freedom, Peace, and Justice ! " 

A great poet (though not from our translation) 
of the Byron order! But he was unfair to treat this 
poor ruler, maddened by solitude and maceration, as 
a tyrant. Under the reign of his son, whose dead 
body he dragged out to scourge, Pushkine was not 
tried or chastised : he was merely ** enjoined " to 
leave the capital and dwell with his father in the 
country, where he was an official. But, shortly after, 
the order came for him to repair into the Caucasus. 
It was banishment, but not into Siberia. To some it 
wjould be a favour and not a punishment tO' have the 
opportunity to risk life with a rifle in hand in the 
wilderness. 

The loneliness, the snowy mountain peak, the racing 
torrents, and the glittering sea, united to enhance 
Pushkine's melancholy bend, and to make him the 
poetical genius his land admires. In Tarak gorges 
and on the Caspian shores, he committed his verses 
to the wind; and it carried them out of Asia toward 

244 



Ubc IRomance of a poet 

Moscow and even into St. Petersburg. Hence his 
" Prisoner of the Caucasus," coeval with Byron's 
works, and held as equal to *' The Corsair " and " The 
Giaour." This talent pleaded for him with the Em- 
peror, who granted him the leave to return home to 
the parental roof. He was living at Pskof when the 
famous Pestel conspiracy broke out. He had been 
solicited to join it, but for once sensible, romantic 
though he was, the poet refused, as he saw nO' success 
for the plot. Still, he was curious to be a " looker-on 
at Venice" (the Venice of the North) and, early 
in December, he quitted where he was expected to stay, 
and started under a friend's passport for the capital. 

He had scarcely started when a hare crossed his 
path. Russia is the most superstitious of all countries, 
and a hare is a bad token. Or it is a warning that 
you must not continue the errand so' " crossed." As 
a poet, Pushkine was credulous, but he defied the 
presage, crying out to the postboy, who had balked 
and turned in the saddle to learn what to doi : " On, 
on!" 

But, a few miles farther, another hare crossed the 
road; and as the postilion again pulled up, the 
traveller was undecided for a space. Then he thought- 
fully said : 

" The shorter the mad-spell, the better. Let us 
turn back ! " 

To this circumstance the poet owed his liberty, if 
not his life, for if he had been taken at St. Peters- 

245 



Celebratet) CrimcB ot tbe IRussian Court 

burg along with the December rioters, his antecedents 
were so condemnatory that he would have been hanged 
or transported to Siberia. 

He was safe at Pskof when he learnt that his com- 
panions had been executed or exiled. He was meant 
for action himself, so he wrote offhand : 

" The reign's but begun, but it is worthy the Turk ! 
Five hundred in jail and five hanged — speed the work ! " 

The Emperor Nicholas I. could hardly be ignorant 
of this fresh offence to the dynasty, yet it is certain 
that, from this notable December, the poet's return 
into grace took root. The refusal to join in with 
the insurrectionists was found among their papers 
and put under the imperial eyes; not deeply perceiv- 
ing the motive dictating it, and perhaps wishful to 
show one kindness amid much severity, he had Push- 
kine brought to him. The poet had imagined he was 
a lost man on hearing the order. Nicholas, on ascend- 
ing the throne, might disapprove of Alexander's in- 
dulgence, and he might think to score off that " Ode 
to Freedom," though the author thought it settled. 
But it was more likely that the new ruler wished to 
meet his dues about the later couplet from that pen! 
Still, Pushkine could not elude such invitations, but, 
to his great astonishment, he received the warm- 
est greeting at St. Petersburg, which he had called 
" the window looking out upon Europe," and which 

to him then looked out upon a promised land. In- 

246 



XTbe IRomance ot a poet 

deed, he was appointed Russian historiographer, and 
given an order to write the life of Peter I. 

But by a caprice pecuHar to poets, Pushkine shelved 
that project and wrote "The Pugetchef Revolt." Even 
the natives do not cite this work, and the author was 
not happily inspired. For the imperial favour had 
not changed Pushkine's opinions and feelings. Far 
from forgetting his friends in Siberian captivity, they 
became the more dear to him, and he was always 
vociferating the swan's lament or the eagle's defiance. 

The ex-pupils of Tzarsko-Celo College held their 
annual dinner, to reunite the ties formed in the class- 
room and apt to unravel in social life. Four of the 
brightest graduates, who had completed their courses 
at the same time as Pushkine, were missing: Wal- 
korski, soldiering in the Caucasus, Naval-officer Ma- 
thuskine, voyaging around the world, Pushkine, the 
poet's cousin of the same name, and one Kukelbeker, 
the latter two buried in the Siberian mines as two of 
the recent conspirators. 

Pushkine rose with goblet in hand, and, though 
Siberia yawned for him likewise, improvised this 
toast: 

" Be Heaven your help, friends, so low, 
Where every day breaks through a dense fog of woe ; 
Where wisdom dilutes all the bliss from above, 
And gags us when we would yet sing Hope and Love ! 

" Be Heaven your help in this world, friends, a witch 
That sours with tears e'en this wine red and rich ; 
247 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

Whether you are now plunged in the sea's bitter brine, 
Or languish, a slave, in the deep counter-mine ! " 

Deadly silence followed the last words, but presently 
the whole table burst out into applause. Of the sixty 
" old boys " not one became a denunciator. This 
would have been fine anywhere, but it was superlative 
in Russia, under Nicholas. 

On another day, Pushkine entered unawares the 
study of a friend, who was writing to one of the 
banished in Siberia. He took up a pen and wrote 
on his own behalf : 

" In the stern Siberian underworld, cherish your 
constancy amid your sullen toil; celestial clemency 
never was exhausted, and the eye that sees your 
labours will keep record of your tears. Nothing will 
be lost of your spiritual longings, seed you scattered 
for the future harvest, for the prosperity of our in- 
famous tyrants is preserved that doom shall appear 
the more bitter. Although you may doubt your 
friends' love when you stagger and fall in the gloom, 
yet, believe me, that love is striving to open to you 
the homeward route; there is no dungeon so tight 
that a star-ray will not illumine it some day! That 
pious love will pierce even unto your grave, and my 
Muse, who will make music of the clinking of your 
fetters, will guide it whence your bleeding brow shall 
wear the martyr's wreath. Its comforting voice 

breathes : * Do you not know me, brothers ? It is 

248 



xrbe IRomance ot a poet 

I, who have come! Hope has illusive beams, but 
this is saintly Freedom — it is more than nigh ! it is 
here ! ' The hour when victims are avenged is slow 
to come; yea, but it will ring out — perchance, to- 
morrow ! May it find you still on the brink of your 
abyss, but with your irons in your hands — a 
weapon ! " 

As these were not lines for print, they circulated 
in handwriting, and Pushkine's popularity grew daily 
in the young generation, cherishing generous ideas. 

At this period, he fell passionately in love with the 
girl whom he later wedded. In the honeymoon, he 
published some pieces O'f poetry of varied form, but 
in the bottom lurk the author's sadness and bitter- 
ness. 

One of the most peculiar of the fancies is called 

THE TWO RAVENS 

Toward its mate a raven flew, 

E'er croaking in its flight, 
To learn " Where shall our breakfast be? 

For keen's my appetite ! " 

The other to her bird replied : 

" My dear, you need not brood ! 
Upon the heath a knight is laid. 

Who dyes it with his blood." 

" And who has wrought a deed so vile, 

And why did Murder stalk ? '* 
" None know — unless it be his dame. 

His war-horse, or his hawk." 
249 



Celebtatet) Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

The hawk made off as fast as light, 

And out of ken has soared ; 
And on the charger rides, as fleet. 

The slayer of his lord. 

And in his castle, lavishly 

Preparing of the board, 
The lovely widow fondly waits 

The slayer of her lord. 

Of the author's prose there are two volumes, one 
containing that story of a regicidal plot, previously 
brushed aside as unworthy, and collected stories known 
by their versions through French and German. " The 
Pistol-shot " and " The Captain's Daughter " have 
some standing. 

Pushkine was thirty-eight years of age, at the zenith 
of his talent and popularity, when an event came to 
snatch him away. 

Russian aristocracy was highly jealous of the 
author, who was founding a caste more dignified and 
lasting than that of his illustrious and contempora- 
neous lords. In war, the poet's lyre overcomes even the 
clash of arms; in peace, his lute pervades everything. 

As they might not be able to break the passionate 
heart, they sought to bleed it to death. Few days 
passed without his receiving anonymous letters, which 
had the aim to inspire doubt upon his wife's fidelity. 
The hints converged toward a young neighbour named 
Dantes. The master intimated to him that his calls 

were unwelcome, and the visits ceased. But after 

250 



Ube IRomance ot a poet 

awhile, Pushkine met the intruder in his house one 
evening. His anger bhnded him, for, without any 
explanation, he caught Dantes by the throat and set 
to strangling him. In the struggle, the captive man- 
aged to gurgle out that he was not calling on the 
wife, but her sister. 

" If that is so, will you marry her ? " 

In a month Dantes became the mate of Mile. 
Gantchowna, sister-in-law of the householder. This 
proof of innocence ought to have terminated the dif- 
ference. But an inexplicable hatred had doomed the 
poet. The letters recommenced to rain down. They 
asserted that the marriage was only a screen for more 
wickedness. For some months the genius fought 
against the tide of doubt, rage, and fury boiling in him ; 
and finally he declared that he could not bear his 
brother-in-law, and that the latter must quit Russia 
or fight a duel to the death with him. All means 
were exhausted toi calm the poet, but he had gone 
mad. He threatened to insult his relative so publicly 
that the mortal combat would have to ensue. 

Dantes begged for a fortnight, with a hope that the 
challenger would revoke the crazy ultimatum. Push- 
kine allowed the delay, but sent his second, afterward 
General Danzas, to the offended party. Plis instruc- 
tions were positive, and it was agreed that they should 
meet with pistols. 

It was the sole duelling weapon used in Russia, and 
by it fell Lermontoff, inheritor of this poet's gifts. 

251 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe 1Ru56tan Court 

They went out into the field of honour that same 
day. It was in some woods a quarter-mile from the 
Neva, up-stream. Pushkine supervised the loading, 
that he might rely on the bullets not being tampered 
with. 

They measured off thirty paces; the adversaries 
were allowed to fire at will, while marching upon one 
another: either was allowed to advance ten paces, 
which reduced the firing space. Dantes kept his stand, 
and his opponent was well on the march before he 
fired, which was at a little over twenty paces — yet 
Pushkine fell. Still he was up afoot to take aim and 
shoot. Dantes stood the fire, merely shielding his 
face with the discharged firearm. The bullet went 
through the forearm, and cut a button off his coat. 

" A second shot ! " demanded Pushkine. 

But he had barely got out the word than he dropped 
again, his strength failing him. Dantes wished to 
run up to him, but hate survived the wound : the 
enemy waved him away. He obeyed. 

The seconds examined the wound. The bullet had 
entered the left side, and was lost in the vitals. Push- 
kine was lifted into his carriage and driven home. It 
was six in the afternoon. His valet took him out of 
General Danzas's arms and carried him up to his room. 
He directed that he should be placed in his study, and 
that his wife should be kept ignorant of everything. 
But on learning that he had returned home, she forced 

her way to him. He had been undressed and put on 

252 



Ube IRomance of a poet 

the sofa. He pretended that he was slightly un- 
well. 

She saw it was more than a headache, and asked 
if the doctor ought not to be sent for. He agreed, 
adding that she should write for one, an excuse to get 
her out of the room for awhile. During this, he 
ordered the man to run for his friends and doc- 
tors. 

The valet found only two at home, and hastened 
back with them. They had Pushkine between them 
while General Danzas led Madame Pushkine out. 
The two were grave, but they waited for Plarrendt, 
the family physician, before pronouncing definitely. 
Pushkine felt that he was a dead man, for he said : 

" I see I must make up my accounts ! " 

" Would you not like to send word to some of your 
relatives or friends ? " asked Doctor Scholtz. 

Without replying, the author turned his head 
toward his library, and said : 

"Farewell, my good friends!" but they did not 
know whether he meant those in leather or in flesh. 

Doctor Harrendt arrived and found the hand cold 
and the pulse weak and hurried. He saw there was no 
hope. The sufferer, from this time forward, thought 
no more of himself, but of his wife. She was in 
easily understood despair. Fortified by her innocence, 
she still knew that the duel had been on her account, 
and she could not forgive herself for being the invol- 
untary cause of the mishap. She hovered about, but, 

253 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

though he did not see her, he was conscious of 
her moivements: he asked the doctor to keep her 
away. 

" Poor woman ! though innocent, the world will tear 
her reputation to shreds ! " he breathed. 

With the exception of two or three hours at the 
first, when his pangs were beyond human endurance, 
he was astonishingly calm. Doctor Harrendt said 
afterward that he had been in thirty encounters, and 
seen many dying men, but never had met any one with 
such courage. Usually, the poet was irascible and 
violent, but after the preliminary throes, he became 
another man; the storm which had tossed him all his 
life seemed to have died away without any aftermath. 
Not a word uttered revealed any impatience. In 
death's serenity, he seemed to soar above all hate. He 
had been constantly attacked by Bulgarin and Greitch 
in their newspaper, but, recollecting that he had been 
informed that Greitch had lost a son, he begged his 
doctor to tell the latter that he had been truly grieved 
by the news. His religious duties accomplished, he 
seemed even more placid. He attended to some busi- 
ness and his writings. Then, feeling a pang of weak- 
ness, he breathlessly called for his wife. 

No doubt she had been waiting at the door, for she 
was with him in an instant. A painful scene followed, 
but as if he wanted a fund of energy for the last 
moment, he finally signalled that she was to be re- 
moved. At the same time he dismissed his children. 

254 



Ubc IRomance ot a poet 

The outer rooms were full of mourners, and she did 
not want for comforters. 

Prince Viazemski might be considered as represent- 
ing the imperial court, and the poet said to him, in a 
faint but clear voice : 

" Tell the Emperor that I am sorry to die, for I 
wished to' be more to him! Tell him I wished him a 
long reign and happiness to his line and all Russia ! " 

During the night of the 29th, he said : " How I 
linger ! My heart, that I thought had split, seems long 
a-breaking ! " 

After the doctors had given him up, he lasted; it 
was two in the afternoon when he woke, seemingly 
refreshed, and asked for some maroska. It is a sort 
of mulberry, and was brought to him as a preserve. 

** Wait," said he, " let my wife give it to me." 

Pushkine fondled her after taking two or three 
mouthfuls from her hand, and said : " You see how 
much better I am ! " This caused her to go out, saying 
to the doctor : " There ! Heaven is merciful ! you 
see that he will get well ! " 

That was what it was done for, since the agony 
commenced. 

He took and clasped a friend's hand, and said: 

" Lift me up and let us go on high together! " Was 
it the beginning of delirium? Later, he was more 
rational, but, pointing to his bookcase, he said : " It 
seems to me that those shelves are the rounds of a 
ladder with which we scaled the heights! but my 

255 



Celel)rate^ Crimes of tbe IRusslan Court 

head spins ! But let us go together ! Ah, no, I am to 
go alone!" He fell back on the pillow. "I can 
hardly breathe," gasped he. "I stifle ! " They were 
his last words. He simply sighed, evenly and easily, 
so sweetly that all lookers-on did not see it done. 

It was January 29, 1837. A death-mask was taken 
of the calm and grand man. More than ten thousand 
persons passed by the corpse to do it honour. Some 
had lost a kinsman, some a friend, and all a great 
poet. The entire court, with the foreign ambassadors, 
attended the funeral mass. The body was transported 
to his mother's burial-place, the Assumption Convent 
at Pskof. 

The poet had two mothers; with the first, of this 
world, he reposes, but the other survives him, and 
watches proudly and jealously by his tomb — it is 
Posterity ! 



256 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE SIBERIAN ROAD AS TRAVELLED BY THE 

PEOPLE 

In all countries, there is an asserted equality under 
the law, and after it has issued its decree of chastise- 
ment, the equality is supposed to exist more clearly 
than before. But aristocracy in Russia preserves some 
influence, even when stripped of its fine feathers ; and 
the jailbird who has streaks of the yellow metal may 
hope for amelioration of his fate. 

On my asking if it were possible for a stranger seek- 
ing curious sights to penetrate a criminal prison, I 
was answered that there were no difficulties : the 
authorities would be flattered by the distinction of a 
visit. A friend facilitated all the preliminary steps 
and found me a conductor. 

The prison we selected was the nearest. My guide 
announced his business and showed his credentials. 
A jailer was supplied us, with the orthodox ring of 
keys, who walked before us up a corridor, opened the 
door to a winding staircase, took us down twenty steps, 
and opened a second door, revealing a second lobby, 
so reeking with damp that we might believe we were 

257 



Celebratet) Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

under the ground level. Thus far advanced into the 
bowels of the land, the turnkey inquired if I had any 
preference as to my quest. My guide was the inter- 
preter, speaking perfect French. 

I made answer through him that, not knowing any 
of the prisoners, I would look in anywhere, provided 
the prisoner was doomed to go to work in the 
Siberian Mines. 

So the man unlocked the first cell door. He carried 
a lantern, and my conductor and I were each provided 
with lighted candles. The dungeon, not being capa- 
cious, was well lighted up. On a wooden seat, large 
enough to be a bench by day and a bed by night, I 
spied a small, dried-up man, with brilliant eyes, his 
full beard long, and his hair shaven off behind and 
cut short at the temples. A chain embedded in the 
wall ran out to a ring welded around his ankle. 

At our intrusion, he lifted his head, and asked : 

"Is it coming off to-day? why, I thought it was 
not till to-morrow." 

" It is truly for the morrow," returned my pilot ; 
" but this gentleman is visiting the jail, and he will 
give you the price of a glass of brandy if you will tell 
him how you come to be condemned to the mines." 

" There is no need to pay anything — I have told the 
story. I will say it over again as I did to the judges." 

" Go ahead, then ! " 

" It is not a long story, and it runs easily. I had a 
wife and four children. I had just broken the last 

258 



Ubc Siberian 1Roa^ 

hunk of bread for them when the stavanoi (steward) 
looked in to inform me that the Emperor, going to war 
on a grand scale, lacked cash, and wanted me to pay 
the first half-yearly tax. My rate was a ruble and 
seventy-five copecks." (A ruble is seventy-five cents). 
'' I showed the collector the state we were in, the hut 
unfurnished, the wife and youngsters almost naked, 
and I begged for time. 

" He said that the Czar could not wait. 

" ' But what am I to do? ' I prayed, wringing my 
hands. 

" ' I don't know what you will do, but I know what 
I shall do ! ' replied he. * I shall have them drop water 
on your shaven pate until, as it freezes, you will be 
inclined to pay up.' 

(This torture was invented by Biren, to convert 
living men intO' ice statuary. ) 

" * No doubt you can kill me — but how much the 
gainer will you be then? You will not get the silver, 
and my wife and little ones will die.' 

^' My good woman told the youngsters to go down 
on their knees and pray to the good, kind steward to 
give us a little time so that father might find work 
and so earn what would pay the war poll-tax. The 
children knelt beside their mother." 

I interrupted the prisoner to address my guide, in 
order to have no doubt on the speaker's truth. " I 
thought," I observed, " that every landholder was 
obliged to give each head of a family some eight 

259 



Celebtateb Crimes of tbe iRusstan Court 

acres of tillable land and two or three of meadow for 
pasturage — on shares ? " 

" That's right for landholders, but the land-poor 
ones, having no land for themselves, cannot let out 
any; these hire out their tenants as rahotchnicks, or 
day-labourers; that is this fellow's case." He notified 
the prisoner to continue. 

" The tax-gatherer," went on the man, " would 
not listen to anything, but grabbed me by the collar 
to hale me off to jail. 

" * Stop a bit,' said I. ' I would rather sell myself 
to the burlaks; my hide will fetch five or six rubles, 
with which I will settle my score with you and leave 
a trifle for my master and family.' " 

(The burlaks are contractors to raft wood, and do 
all kinds of the heaviest work.) 

" ' I allow you a week to pay up the contribution ; 
but if I do not finger the Czar's pence by then, I shall 
clap your family in the guard-house, and not you ! ' 

" My wood-axe was gleaming near the stove ; it 
caught the tail of my eye — and I had terrible temp- 
tation to snatch it up and let him have one good clip! 
Luckily for him, he left quickly. I kissed my wife 
and the children good-bye, and, in going through the 
hamlet, I begged the neighbours to be good to them, 
for it was going to take me two days to get to the 
district government quarters and as many to get back, 
and in that time they might be starved to death. I 
let my friends know that I was reduced to sell myseti. 

260 



Ubc Siberian IRoa^ 

toi the labour contractors, and took a long leave, as 
it was not likely that they would ever let me work my- 
self free and return. Every man Jack pitied my fate, 
and they joined me in cursing the oppressor, but not 
one offered me the sum to pay the military tax for 
which I was selling myself. I went off, weeping 
bitterly, and trudged on for two or three hours till 
I caught up with a man of our village named Onesimus. 
He was driving his cart. We were not great friends, 
so that I was passing him without saying a word, when 
he hailed me. 

" * Where are you going? ' he asked. 

" * To the district governor to sell myself to- the 
labour contractors in order to find a sum for the Czar, 
which I have not got.' 

** I believe he gave me a grin, but, maybe, I was 
mistaken. 

" * Well, I'm going over to headquarters, too,' he 
said ; * I am going to get my barrel filled up — it holds 
just about two rubles' worth, less a quarter's.' 

" He pointed to a keg in the cart ; I sighed, for the 
sum was just the amount needed. 

'' ' What are you thinking about? ' he asked. 

" ' That, if you would do without liquor for four 
Sundays, and would lend me the two rubles less a 
quarter, I could pay my tax and my family would be 
saved.' 

*' * That's good ! but where's the security that you 
would ever pay me back ? You are poor as Job ! ' 

261 



(Ielebrate^ Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

" * I vow that I will drink nothing but water and eat 
nothing but bran bread until I shall have acquitted my- 
self as regards you/ 

" ' I would rather drink my vodka, it is a safer 
investment.' 

" I ought to tell you, gentleman, that, out our way, 
there is no charity; it is every man for himself — but 
that is easily explained, because we are all slaves. 

" * All I can do' for you,' said Onesimus, ' is give 
you a lift in my cart so that you will arrive without 
being tired, and you will fetch a higher price thereby ! ' 

" I thanked him, but would not get in, that time. 
But he called me a fool and urged, so that the devil 
tempted me — I saw him flash by me, all fiery red ! 
My head spun so that I had to sit down not to fall 
altogether. 

" * You see, you cannot keep your legs,' he said ; 
* climb in ! and when I ship the spirits, I'll give you a 
wet ! it will put pluck in you ! So in you get ! ' 

** I did get into the cart. But when I had to rest, 
my hand had touched a rock, and I kept a grip of it 
when I was up there. It was dark as we entered a 
forest. I looked around upon the road, but saw no- 
body. I allow I was wicked, sir; but I saw myself 
looped in a tow-line and dragging a barge along a 
riverside, while my wife and little dears were crying 
for * bread ! ' You would think he did it to exasperate 
me, for he set to singing, as he quizzed me : ' Take 
it easy, my little bride — I am going to bring you 

262 



Ubc Siberian 1Roa& 

home a pretty dress and a fine necklace from town ! ' 
I held my stone with such a grip that I believe my 
fingers left their prints in it. I struck the back of his 
head so violently that it knocked him out of the cart, 
and he fell between the horse's legs. 

" I jumped down and dragged him into the woods. 
He carried a purse in which was at least twenty-five 
rubles. I took just what I needed, and, without look- 
ing behind me, ran all the way home. Getting there 
at daybreak, I roused the tax-collector and took my 
receipt for the payment. I could not be worried, on 
that account, for six months. 

" When I got home, the wife and children won- 
dered that it was I. I told them that I had met a 
friend who had lent me the money, and I had no need 
to sell myself. 

" ' You must not bother me, but let me work to 
repay my good friend.' 

" I pretended to be merry, but I had death in my 

heart. It was not for long; instead of killing Onesi- 

mus, I had only stunned him. Coaming back, he told 

the tale. I was put in jail, where I remained five 

years without any time being found to try me; then 

I was haled before the sudies (magistrates) ; I told 

them the facts. They rewarded me for pleading 

guilty, and instead of condemning me to ten thousand 

strokes of the rod, which I expected, I was merely sent 

to the mines. We start to-morrow, do we not, sir ? " 

he inquired of my conductor. " Glad to hear it. I 

263 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

am placed in the copper mines — it is said that no- 
body stands that long! " 

I offered him two rubles. 

" Ugh ! it is too late now to give me that sum ! it 
ought to have come to me when the steward was 
grinding me! before I undertook to kill Onesimus." 
He lay down on his bench. Placing the coin near him, 
we went out. 

The turnkey opened another cell door; the interior 
was the same. But the inmate, chained in the same 
way to a bench, was a good-looking fellow of twenty- 
odd. We questioned him as w^e had the former, and 
he similarly made no objection to speaking. 

" My name is Gregory," he said. " I am the son of 
a well-to-do farmer in Tula district. I am no idler, 
gambler, or drunkard. My father and mother were 
serfs. But as they were the best tillers on Count 

G 's property, they not only had their plot of land 

like the others, but kept on adding to it by ten, twenty, 
a hundred lots. They hired labourers of a petty squire, 
who had no soil to cultivate, and made a pretty for- 
tune. I fell in love with a neighbour's daughter, the 
prettiest girl of the parts. When I say I fell in love, 
that is not quite right, for I think we always had 
loved each other, as we grew up together. When she 
was nineteen and I twenty, our parents agreed that 
we ought to be getting married. Every year the lord 
is supposed to come on his estate, and we counted on 
getting his leave, without which the priest would not 

264 



Ube Siberian IRoa^ 

perform the rites. But it was a steward who came 
down instead of him. My father and I called on 
him as soon as he arrived, for he had full powers from 
his master, and his permission would suffice. He re- 
ceived us nicely, and promised we should have our 
will. As he came to see us a week afterward, we re- 
minded him of the promise. He merely said that he 
would look into the matter. 

" Varvara and I did not distress ourselves much ; 
we thought it was only a way of raising the terms for 
the permission, and we reckoned that, with a hundred 
rubles out of pocket, we should have things smooth. 

" A third time we spoke to him on the subject, when 
he roughly replied: 

" ' But what about the military service ? ' 

" * But,' I rejoined, ' I am two and twenty ! Since 
I came of age, the Mir (village council) have had no 
idea of pricking me out. There are enough laggards 
and vagabonds about the place to keep the well-con- 
ducted from being selected ! ' 

" ' The Mir acts as it likes, when I am not here, but 
I am the master now, and I have the selecting of the 
recruits.' 

" I went to seek Varvara, to share my fears with 
her, and found her sadder and more troubled than I. 
I questioned her, but could not get any satisfaction ; 
she wept plentifully. I was in despair, for I forefelt 
that great misfortune was overhanging. 

" Next Sunday the steward convoked a meeting of 
26s 



(Telebtate^ Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

the section. He told us that on account of the war, 
there must be a supplementary levy of men for the 
military. Instead of eight men in the thousand, the 
Czar required twenty-three. But the extras would be 
sent home the moment the war was ended. So the 
mayor was to draw up the list of the regular quota, 
and the supplementary recruits. 

" I ran to Varvara, and found her still in tears. 

" ' Oh, I am sure that rascally steward will set you 
down ! ' she moaned. 

" ' What makes you believe that ? ' I asked. 

" ' Nothing — but a hare ran across my path ! ' 

" I could learn nothing further from her. The same 
day the list was published : Varvara was not wrong. 
I was not among the recruits, but the fifth of the 
militia. I went home grieving. My father had already 
been to the steward and offered him five hundred 
rubles to let me ofif. He had rejected them. The levy 
was to go away in two days, early in the morning. On 
the eve, I strolled with my sweetheart in a little 
meadow where we had, as children, strayed to pick 
flowers. We had to cross a little bridge over a stream, 
narrow but deep. Varvara stopped on the planks to 
watch the water bubble as it rushed. She was sad. 
A ' hole ' was said to be at that spot. I saw her tears 
flow one by one and drop into the gulf. 

" ' Varvara, there is something underhand here — 

you are keeping a secret! Confess it,' I continued, 

since she made no reply. 

266 



TLbc Siberian IRoa^ 

" * The secret is that we shall never see one another 
any more ! ' 

" ' Why say so? I am not a recruit, but a militia- 
man. Such are sent home when the war is over. 
Every soldier is not killed — and I am bound to return 
— in a year or two ! Varvara, I love you and you love 
me — have the courage, and we shall yet be happy 
together ! ' 

" ' We are not to see each other any more, Gregory ! ' 
she persisted. 

" ' But why so awful a prediction ? ' 

" ' Loving me, you ought to know your duty.' She 
threw herself in my arms. 

" I pressed her to my heart, wondering that she 
should doubt me. Shrinking toward me, she glanced 
into the gulf. 

" ' You ought to throw me down into that ! ' she 
said. 

" I cried out alo^'a against that. 

" ' Yes, that you should do, that I may not be the 
prey of another ! ' 

" ' Another, and a prey ? How, if mine, can you 
think of another, or another of you ? * I urged her, 
as she was silent. * Do you mean to drive me mad ? ' 

" * I see, you suspect nothing ? But I had better be 
quiet, and let come what may ! ' 

" * You had best speak, since you began to do so.' 

" She burst into sobs and appeals to Heaven. 

" ' Varvara,' I said, ' one thing I shall do ! if you 
267 



Celebrateb CtimeB ot tbe IRusslan Court 

do not speak plainly, I shall leap down there under 
your eyes. If I am to lose you, as well thus as other- 
wise ! ' 

" * But your death will neither prevent nor revenge 
my dishonour ! ' 

" By my yell of rage, she understood that I was blind 
no longer. 

'''The steward has his eye upon me,' said she; 
' that is why he wants to send you off, as I rejected 
him.' 

" ' The villain ! ' and I looked around me. A 
peasant, leaving off wood-hewing, had dropped his 
broadaxe, stuck in the end of a beam. 

" ' What do you think of doing, Gregory ? ' 

" ' By my hand, he shall die, I vow that, Varvara ! ' 

" ' Then they will execute you ! ' 

" ' What care I ? ' I held the axe on high ; ' I shall 
keep my oath, and if I am executed, it will be only 
for me to go whither I expect to have you meet me 
some day.' 

" I set off at a run for the village, and did not heed 
her calling, for I was determined. She called out a 
farewell and that I should have to meet her! At that, 
I stopped and hurried back, my hair bristled on end. 
For I spied an object streaking across the twilight: 
there was the splash of a body in the whirlpool — a 
'tchug!' and another word like farewell, smothered. 
The bridge was empty. From that time forth I know 
not what happened — until I found myself in the 

268 



Ube Siberian 1Roa& 

lockup. As I was smeared with blood, I believe I 
had brained the scoundrel. Oh, Varvara! Varvara, 
you will not wait long for me! '* 

Bursting into sobs, the young man threw himself 
face down on the wooden slab, uttering groans of des- 
peration. 

The jailer, opening a third door, we were in a third 
cell. It was occupied by a Hercules, in his fortieth 
year. His eyes and beard were sable; but what was 
seen of his hair was white, turned by a great grief. 
He did not wish to speak at first, saying that he was 
done with his judges, thank God! but on being told 
that I was a traveller, and a Frenchman to boot, he 
relented, and to my astonishment, said, in excellent 
French : 

" That changes the face of things, sir, and, anyway, 
it will not take long." 

" But do you mind my asking how you come to be a 
French scholar, and so pure a one? " 

"Quite simply," was his reply; " I am the serf of 

a foundry owner. He sent three of us to France to 

study in the Arts and Crafts School, at Paris. We 

were ten years old. One died there, and we two 

returned after eight years' study. My comrade was 

a chemist, I, a machinist. While we were living in 

Paris on terms of equality with others, we forgot we 

were poor slaves. We were not long allowed to cherish 

the memory. My mate, being insulted by the master's 

steward, boxed his ears. He received a hundred 

269 



Celebtateb Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

strokes of the rods. An hour afterward he laid his 
head under the steam trip-hammer, which strikes with 
a thousand weight at a blow : his head was pulped. 

" Being of a gentler character, I got off with mere 
reprimands. Besides, I was fond of my mother, and 
endured a good deal out of love for her, and to spare 
her affliction, more than if I had been alone. I did not 
dream of marrying as long as she lived ; but, five years 
after, I did wed a girl, with whom I had been some 
time acquainted. Ten months following, she made me 
the father of such an adorable little girl ! 

" My master had a mania ; it was an English dog, 
imported, and costing him a pretty sum, it appears. 
She had a pair of whelps, one of each sex. They were 
kept to perpetuate the rare breed. But mishap befel : 
on his driving home, he did not see his pet dog, which 
ran to meet him, and a wheel passing on the creature, 
it was crushed outright. But, as I told you, there were 
the two puppies. They were but four days old, and 
it was a puzzle how to nourish them. My master, 
hearing that my wife was nursing, had the idea that 
our child should be sent to the Messakina (Public In- 
fantile Asylum) , so that she might attend to his dogs. 
I have heard from his English groom that in his 
country, peasant women are employed to bring up 
fox-cubs; but — well, my wife agreed to suckle the 
pups and her child, but he said that she would rob the 
curs! 

" On my coming home from the foundry, as usual, 

270 



Ube Siberian iRoa^ 

and going straight to my little one's crib, I found it 
empty, and asked after it. My wife told me the whole 
story, and pointed to the two pups, sleeping after 
fulness. I went out and brought my girl back from 
the Communal Asylum and gave it to the mother. 
Then I took those dogs by the scruff of the neck and 
dashed their brains out against the wall. Two days 
had not passed before I set fire to my lord's castle, but, 
unfortunately, the fire spread intO' the village and two 
hundred huts were burned down. I was arrested, put 
in jail, and sentenced to life-work in the mines, for 
arson. That is my story; I told you it was not a 
long one. Now, if you are not averse to touching a 
convict, let me grasp your hand. It will do me good, 
for I was very happy in France ! " 

I gave him my hand and pressed his heartily, though 
he was an incendiary. And I would not have given it 
to his master, though he were a prince. 

Now that you have read how the humble win the 
hard-labour sentences, tell me, gentle reader, who are 
the true offenders — masters, lords, stewards, bailiffs, 
or the men they send to the mines? 



271 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE SIBERIAN ROAD AS TRAVELLED BY THE NOBLES 

The convicts whose stories have been taken down 
from their own lips went to Siberia in the notorious 
" chain-gangs." 

Let us see how the higher offenders fare. 

The Emperor Nicholas professed a supreme respect 
for the law. A princess, allied with the Panines, had 
slain two of her serfs in a fit of rage; the State 
Council condemned her for murder, but, on account 
of her age and high connections, decided to send her 
into a convent for penitence. But Nicholas wrote on 
the margin of this subterfuge: 

" Before the Law, old age and historical names 
cannot be pleaded ; this wearer of both is still a slave 
to the Law. The Law orders that all murderers shall 

be sent to the mines. Send the Princess T to the 

mines. Be this so! Nicholas." 

Perhaps it is as marvellous a fact as any that the 
order to go to Siberia is bowed to as a heavenly 
decree: never is known an active resistance. Even 

272 



Ubc Siberian IRoaD 

the mailed hand drops and does not use the sword to 
win a temporary delay. At a parade before the crazy 
Emperor Paul, a regiment of horse blundered. The 
commander repeated the order, but, as it failed this 
second time, he shouted out: 

" As you are — forward ! at the walk, at the trot 
— gallop ! On to Siberia ! " 

Knowing nothing but passive obedience, away 
dashed the squadrons, the colonel at the head, on the 
road to Siberia, where it would eventually have ar- 
rived, but for a courier overtaking it at a halt with 
a countermand. 

Although the Russian peer was never sure that, 
in lying down, he would not wake in bondage, or that, 
stepping into his own carriage, he might not step 
out into a Siberian mine-shaft, stiff court etiquette 
clung to such changes. 

When the Pestel plotters were sent into exile, in 
sledges carrying four, ironed two by two, the families 
of the Princess Trubetskoi and of Wolkonski waited 
at the first stage out of the capital to bid them fare- 
well. The Czar Nicholas did not omit the attention 
to send for news, by an aid, of Countess Muravief and 
Princess Trubetskoi. The former plainly replied: 

" Tell his Imperial Highness to go to the devil ! " 

Princess Trubetskoi was more polite in return for 
the odd civility, responding: "Inform his Majesty 
that I am in good health, and, in proof, beg him to 
sign my passport as soon as possible." 

273 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

All the ladies had sued for the leave to accompany 
their husbands, and it was joy and happiness to 
sweeten the bitter potion. Princess Trubetskoi's 
mother was heard to make this sublime threat to her 
child : 

" If you are not good, you shall not go into Siberia 
with us ! " 

Russian women are firm like this. An instance is 
recounted of the Princess Ivan Dolgorowski, Natalie, 
who went into Siberian captivity with her husband 
for nine years, when he was " remembered," and re- 
called to be quartered — the widow went to Kiel to 
take the black veil. But on the eve of the renunciation 
of things mundane, she went upon a cliff of the River 
Dnieper, and took off her wedding-ring, which had 
accompanied her in luxurious life and the penal colony, 
to fling it into the water before entering the cell. She 
survived her husband thirty years, and prayed for him 
throughout. 

What rendered these ladies' devotion the more 
notable is that they were informed that from Irkutsk 
forward no baggage would be allowed them, and no 
servants attend them. The consequence was that, to 
harden them to the coming privations, they broke 
themselves from some weeks before starting to cast 
off silk and velvet and don coarse woollens, use their 
hands to domestic toil, learn cooking, and eat oatmeal 
and brown bread, so that their palates would be ac- 



274 



Ubc Siberian IRoab 

customed to popular fare as their hands to common 
tear and wear. 

The journey on this Via Dolorosa begins in the 
straw of a sledge, with the limbs in fetters. When 
not in sledges, the vehicle was the telega, a cruel jaunt- 
ing-car, of which only those who have enjoyed its 
travelling acquaintance can form an idea. But im- 
agine the suffering in a stretch of thousands of miles 
over apologies for roads, where, in the gullies, after 
rain, the hubs sink under in mud! 

Aristocracy by birth may have lost its hold here, 
but that of intellect and high fraternal ideas took its 
sway. Their fate was made less intolerable by the 
prisoners, united by the same cause, having tacit leave 
to nourish their hopes and dream of future liberty 
for the country, if not for themselves. And — may 
blessings fall on those who forgot their duty ! — re- 
spect and consideration were shown for the revolution- 
ists — as well in this as other cases — not known to 
ordinary felons. Their toil was of galley-slaves, but 
it was lessened; the difference was understood by the 
most stupid between murderers and tyrannicides. 
Enough leisure was permitted them at stations where 
they dwelt to found schools, a benefit left after them 
to perpetuate their memory in minds and hearts. 

Then, again, for those whose wives might live with 

them, that halved the misery. The Czar had not 

imposed any burden on the women. 

The story of Prime Minister Menschikoff's exile 
275 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

may afford a full picture of a family's decline and 
revival. 

We have spoken of the powerful favourite in the 
sketch of the Empress Catherine's ascent and reign. 

Under Peter the Great, his gains had enabled him 
to acquire boundless real estate, not only at home, 
where he was peer, Senator, field-marshal, and Knight 
of St. Andrew, but in foreign parts. He owned so 
wide and broad a region throughout the empire that 
it was asserted that he could travel from Riga in 
Livonia to Darbend in Persia, and sleep at night on 
his own ground all the way. These vast domains were 
inhabited by 150,000 serf families, or over five hun- 
dred thousand souls. Add to this " live stock " more 
than three millions of rubles, and as much in gold 
and silver plate, with jewels, — presents from those 
needing his intercession to the master. It may have 
been that the latter intended to strip and banish the 
satrap, but his own unexpected and almost mysterious 
death forbade that. 

Menschikoff stood, without as much power, but with 
all his wealth and adornments. As commander-in- 
chief, he had the army in the hollow of his hand. 
With five hundred Hectors he entered the Senate Hall, 
and, taking the seat his rank entitled him to, forced 
the succession tO' be given Catherine, whose master 
he had been, and in whose name he hoped to rule. 
But there was some opposition. The high chancellor 
and other Senators held to it that Peter II. ought to 

276 




CZAR PETER 11- 



Ube Siberian IRoab 

follow his grandfather. Oppressed by the soldiers, 
they wished to appeal to the people out of the windows, 
but the prince said : " It is too cold to open win- 
dows ! " And on the door being opened at his sign, 
it was seen that the lobby was crammed with soldiery. 
Thus the Czarina Catherine was proclaimed. 

Menschikoff's guardianship weighed upon her, and 
he, perceiving the chafing, foresaw, too, that it were 
best to '' foretell " her approaching decease, and he 
looked about for a successor. He promised the throne 
to the Grand Duke of Muscovy, provided the latter 
would marry his daughter. 

Catherine fell ill and died, as we have previously 
related. Menschikoff became indisputable master of 
all things. He gave his daughter in espousal to the 
young Czar, and watched over the latter as if he 
were a captive. But Peter H. managed to escape his 
guards by leaping out of a window. Enemies of the 
upstart, for Menschikoff was but peasant-born, were 
waiting for the escape, and bore off the crown prince 
into safety, until they could call upon the Senate to 
rally around him. 

The plotter saw that he had lost his stroke. But 
to risk all he went against the young monarch. But 
there the palace was guarded by his foes, instead of 
those on whom he had placed his reliance. He went 
back to his own palace, but soldiers arrived and ar- 
rested him. The Emperor would not see him, but 



277 



Gelebrate& Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

sent orders by which he had to go to his estate of 
Renneburg, between Kasan and Viatka. 

He might have expected worse. 

His fortified castle there had ample grounds, and he 
might live like a peer among the old nobles with whom 
imperial favours had amalgamated him. He had been 
allowed to take any number of servants and what plate 
and baggage he wished. What was rare in such cases 
of abasement, he was spoken to politely, and he might 
hope to come up to the surface of the court. 

So he went out of his house and from the city in 
gilded coach and with a grand retinue, his departure 
resembling, not a march into exile, but an ambassa- 
dor's on an important mission. In going through St. 
Petersburg streets he saluted the mob on all sides, 
like an Emperor receiving popular homage, speaking 
to those he knew with kindly voice and a steady 
demeanour. Many shunned him, without replying, as 
from a leper ; but others, somewhat bolder, pitied him 
or encouraged him; he was not low enough yet to 
be hooted. Insult would come in good season, 
though. 

He was two hours from St. Petersburg on the road 
to Siberia, when a detachment of military barred the 
way. The officer commanding demanded on the part 
of the Czar his orders of knighthood, St. Andrew, 
the Elephant, and the Black and the White Eagle. 
Menschikoff handed them over, having them in a cas- 
ket for the purpose. He had sent so many princes 

278 



XTbe Siberian 1Roab 

into exile that he knew all the arrangements to dis- 
grace them. He was made to alight with his wife 
and family, and they were put in country carts, ready 
to transport them to Renneburg. 

He obeyed, saying: 

" Proceed with your duty. I am ready for all 
events. The more you unload me, the lighter I shall 
travel!" 

He was put in a separate cart from the others, but 
was allowed to see that they came along. It was some 
comfort. But on reaching Renneburg, he found that 
the ordeal was but begun. Even at three hundred miles 
from Moscow, Menschikoff was still too near the sov- 
ereign. The order was for him to go to Irkutsk, in 
Siberia. 

He looked with a smile at his dear ones, who were 
saddened. 

" When you say," he said to the officer. 

" Straightway," was the reply. 

Menschikoff was allowed to bring eight servants. 
But the blow was severe and the shock deep. The 
Princess Menschikoff died on the road before reaching 
Kasan. The guards, who had prevented her, living, 
to sit by her husband, allowed the corpse to travel 
beside him. She dead, all the future anguish would 
heap up upon him. 

At Tobolsk, the people, notified of his coming, were 
waiting for him. He had scarce landed when two 
noblemen, whom he had exiled in his power, rushed 

279 



(Ielel)rate& Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

up to him, each at a side, and covered him with 
abuse. 

Shaking his head sadly, he said to one : 

" Since you have no sweeter vengeance than to over- 
load an enemy with bitter words, take such pleasure, 
my poor fellow! I listen to you without hatred and 
without resentment. I sacrificed you to my policy 
from your being proud and ambitious; you were 
a hindrance to my designs, and I broke you. You 
would have done the same in my place from political 
necessity. 

'' I do not even know you," he continued to the 
other. *' I was not aware that you were exiled. As 
I could neither fear nor hate you, my name has been 
misused for some underhanded plot. This is the 
truth. But if reviling softens your woes, go on re- 
viling ! I have no mind or power to hush you ! " 

Breathless and perspiring, a third exile ran up, 
with flashing eyes. His mouth flowed with insults. 
He scooped up his two hands full of mud, and daubed 
the faces of young Menschikoff and his sisters. 

The youth glanced at his father for leave to reply 
to this outrage, but the elder said to the offender : 

" Your deed is stupid and shameful. Any grudge 
you had to vent ought to have been upon me, and 
not on the unhappy children. I may be guilty, but 
they are innocent." 

He was allowed to rest a week at Tobolsk, and 
given five hundred rubles to lay out to his liking. He 

280 



XTbe Siberian IRoab 

bought cutting and digging implements, material for 
fishing, seed, and cured provisions for his family. 
What was left he gave to the poor. On the day of 
leaving, he was put into a cart with his three children ; 
it was open, and drawn by horses or dogs. He had 
cast off his garments at Renneburg, and since then 
wore peasant costume. They were sheepskin caps and 
overcoats, upon inner clothes, and a gown for night- 
wear. 

The journey took five months in the deep of win- 
ter, the cold at thirty or thirty-five degrees. 

One day, during one of the tri-daily halts, an officer 
on the return from Kamtchatka walked into Men- 
schikoff's cabin by pure chance. He had been sent 
out, three years previously, with messages to Captain 
Bering, the explorer. He had been Prince Menschi- 
koff's aid, and knew nothing about his disgrace. The 
exile recognized him and called him by name. He 
was not recognized in his turn. The officer laughed 
at his appeal, and called him mad. Menschikoff took 
him by the hand and brought him to the window- 
light. 

" Look and remember your former general ! " said 
he. 

" Oh, my prince, by what calamity are you brought 
to this deplorable strait?" 

'* Drop the titles of prince and highness " said the 
other, smiling sadly. " I am a peasant again. God 
raised me and cast me down. His will be done ! " 

281 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

Still the officer could not believe what he saw and 
was told. He spied a boy in the corner occupied in 
cobbling a pair of old shoes with awl and thongs. He 
went over to him, and, pointing to Menschikoff, he 
asked of the boy peasant in an undertone: 

" Do you know who that is ? " 

*' Alexander Menschikoff, my father ! " was the 
answer. " It would seem that you do not want to 
recognize us in our downfall, but you ate our bread 
long enough, methinks, not to forget us," he added, 
bitterly. 

" Silence, boy ! " said the father. He turned to the 
officer and begged him to forgive an unhappy boy 
for his grief. " He is that son of mine whom you 
dandled on your knee when he was younger. And 
you see my daughters there," he went on. 

The two girls, in lowly apparel, were lying on the 
dirt floor and dipping dry bread in a bowl of milk. 

" The elder one," he concluded, sorrowfully, " had 
the honour to be betrothed to the Gossudar (Czar) 
Peter H." 

He related all that had transpired in the capital 
since the officer had been absent, three years. His 
children had fallen asleep while he was talking. 

" They are the cause of my tribulation and the 
source of my woes. Rich, I have become poor with- 
out regretting my lost fortune. From powerful I 
have become wretched, but deplore nothing — not 

even the loss of my liberty. Moreover, my present 

282 



Zbc Siberian IRoab 

misery is but expiation of past faults. But these inno- 
cent creatures, my darlings, whom I have dragged 
down with me, what crime have they committed? 
Why have they been wrapped in my disgrace? So, 
in the bottom of my soul, I hope that an ever just God 
will allow them to see their native land again! re- 
turning enlightened by experience and taught how to 
rest content with their state, however humble it be. 
Now," he continued, ** we part, doubtless, never to 
meet anew. The Czar calls you, and you will see him 
again. Tell him how you found me, assure him that 
I do not curse his justice, however strict it is, and 
add that I enjoy, this day, a free will and a tranquillity 
of conscience never dreamt of in my prosperous time." 

The officer still doubted, but the soldiers of his 
escort confirmed what had been told him, and he was 
obliged to believe. 

At length Menschikoff arrived at his destination. 
He set to work, aided by his eight dependents, to build 
an isba, more commodious than most Russian dwell- 
ings. It consisted of God's room, that is, the place 
of worship or private chapel, and four more. He 
and his son used one, his daughters the next, and the 
servants were lodged next the storeroom. The daugh- 
ter who was to have been the emperor's bride was 
housekeeper. The other, who was yet to wed a duke, 
did the laundry work and the mending. The youth 
hunted and fished. 

From Tobolsk, a friend, whose name none of them 
283 



Celebrateb Crtmes of tbe IRussian Court 

ever knew, sent them a bull, four cows, and fowls for 
the poultry-yard. In a garden they raised enough 
green meat for the family supply. Menschikoff said 
prayers daily to the family and household in the 
chapel. 

Six months passed, and the party were as happy 
as such outcasts can expect to be. 

But, without any forewarning, smallpox invaded 
the little circle. The elder daughter was the first 
attacked. The father had to be the doctor and soon 
the priest to the dying one. She expired in his arms, 
calm and resigned. 

" Learn," said the bereaved parent to the others, 
" by this martyr's example, to die without regretting 
mortal things." 

He dug a grave in the chapel, and carried the dead 
to rest there, in his arms. But the mourners had 
barely returned into their room than the son and other 
daughter were struck down in the same way. Men- 
schikoff nursed them with as much devotedness, and 
was better rewarded. He drew them through the 
portals of death, but they were no sooner out of dan- 
ger than he lay abed, never more to rise. Exhausted 
by pain and fatigue, and undermined with fever, he 
felt that his last day had come. He called the two 
beside his bed, and said, with the serenity never quit- 
ting him in all his distress : 

" Children, I am at my last gasp, and death would 
have nothing- but comfort for me, if I had to render 

284 



XTbe Siberian IRoab 

account to my Lord of only what has happened during 
my exile. I should leave this world and you much 
more tranquil if I had been able to offer the tokens 
of virtue in the previous life, such as I have shown 
here in bondage. If ever you return to court life, 
remember of me solely the acts and precepts you re- 
ceived from me under misfortune. Good-bye! Draw 
near for my blessing ! " 

He tried to extend his hands over the kneeling pair, 
but his voice failed him before another word could be 
uttered, and his head fell in death upon his shoul- 
der. 

The head of the family gone, the officer who looked 
after them began to show more kindness than pre- 
viously. He granted them more freedom, saw that 
their plantation was improved, and allowed them to 
go to town to attend divine w^orship. 

In one of these trips, the young Princess Menschi- 
koff had to pass a poor native hut, beside which that 
her father had built was a palace. An old man's head, 
with bristling beard and unkempt hair, was thrust out 
of the plain loophole-like window. She was fright- 
ened, and went a roundabout way not to meet him. 
But her terror was greater when she heard him call 
by her name and by her title. As the call was kindly 
enough, she stopped and went nearer to examine the 
man; but, not knowing him, resumed her way. But 
he stopped her a second time, saying : 

" Princess, why do you shun me? Ought enmity 
285 



(^elebrate^ Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

be cherished between persons so placed and in our 
positions ? " 

*' Who are you, that I should have any reason to 
hate you? " she inquired. 

"If you do not know me, I am Prince Dolgoruki, 
your father's sternest foe ! " 

She took another step toward him in astonish- 
ment. 

" True, it is you ! Since when came you hither, and 
for what offence against God and the Czar ? '' 

" The Czar is dead," answered the exile. " A week 
after being affianced to my daughter, whom you see 
here on that bench — much as your sister was laid 
out on her bench, who also was his affianced. His 
throne is occupied at present by a woman whom we 
brought out of Courland, because we thought we 
should live happier under her reign than her 
predecessor's. But we blundered. At her favourite's 
whim — the Duke of Biren's — we have been exiled 
for imaginary crimes. All the way hither we have 
been treated like the vilest wrong-doers, and so lack- 
ing the needs of life that we have almost perished of 
starvation. My wife died on the road, — my daughter 
is dying, — but, despite my wretchedness, I hope to 
live to see, in this place, this woman who delivers 
Russia to the rapacity of her gallants! " 

The woman he inveighed against was Anna Ivan- 
owna, daughter of the imbecile Ivan who had reigned 

briefly with Peter I. 

286 



Ube Siberian IRoab 

On hearing and seeing what Dolgoruki's hatred 
was, the hearer was frightened once more and ran 
home. In presence of the officer, their guardian, she 
related what she had heard to her brother. Nothing 
could have been more pleasing to the latter, as he 
had not forgot that Peter II. had fled from Peterhof 
with a young Dolgoruki and by the old prince's ad- 
vice. So he gave way to rage, and vowed to treat 
the prince as he deserved. But the officer interA^ened. 

" You had better bear in mind the feelings your 
dying father's heart was filled with. Up to his last 
breath he did not cease to advise forgiveness of ills. 
On his death-bed you swore to forgive his enemies. 
Do not break your vow — and the more stick to it," 
added the officer, '' from my being forced, if you per- 
severe in your spite, to curtail your liberty." 

The youth bowed to the good advice. It w^ould 
seem that Heaven meant to reward him. A week 
subsequently a despatch from the Empress recalled to 
the court the survivors of the ill-fated Menschikoff 
family. Their first act was to repair to Yakutsk 
Church to give thanks to Heaven. On the way they 
had to pass the Dolgoruki cabin. They made as wide 
a detour as possible to avoid it, but the occupant was 
at the window. Calling them, they approached. 

'' Since you are allowed a liberty refused me, young 
people," he said, " draw near and let us mutually be 
of consolation, by the conformity of our distress and 
the account of our misfortunes." 

287 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

Menschikoff hesitated to respond to his family foe, 
but he saw him so afflicted that he answered : 

" I own that I was hateful toward you, but your 
misery forces me to feel nothing but pity. I forgive 
you as my father has done, for it may be that his 
sacrifice to God of evil sentiments earned us the mercy 
vouchsafed us by the Empress. We are recalled to 
the court." 

" Ah, can you return ? " sighed the banished noble- 
man. 

" Yes ; but for fear that you may be punished for 
listening to us and our parley with you called a crime, 
will you kindly let us leave you at once ? " 

" When do you go? " 

" To-morrow." 

" Fare ye well ! " sighed the old man. " But I 
implore you, on going, to leave behind all the causes of 
enmity you had against me. Think of the unfortunate 
beings who are deprived of necessities, and whom, I 
pray, you will never see again! I say nothing in 
mentioning our sufferings beyond the truth; for, if 
you doubt my words, look upon my son, my daughter, 
and my daughter-in-law, so stretched out with pain 
on the floor that they can hardly rise. Come, come, be 
pitiful thus far — do not refuse them the consolation 
of receiving your good-bye ! " 

They entered the hovel and saw a heart-breaking 
sight. These two girls and a young man were not 
upstarts, like them, but coming of oldest princely fam- 

288 



Ube Siberian IRoab 

ilies, allied to the ancient sovereigns — they were 
prone on the earth, dying, or on benches and a wisp 
of straw. The Menschikoffs looked at each other and 
smiled, for they understood. 

" Hark you," said the young man. " I cannot prom- 
ise you to use our influence at court, for we do not at 
present know on what footing we are to be presented 
there. But we will do what we can to soften your 
conditions. We have a tenable house, well provided 
with provisions, cattle, and poultry. Unknown friends 
sent us these. Well, receive them as we did — as 
coming from Providence! Take this, with what little 
we can also spare, so that my sister and I, in quitting 
Siberia, shall be proud to remember that we did some- 
thing for those worse off than we are." 

With tears in his eyes, Dolgoruki took the girl's 
hand and kissed it. At daybreak the Menschikoffs 
departed, and the Dolgorukis moved into their house. 
The Menschikoffs reached Tobolsk and St. Petersburg 
in time. The Czarina Anna Ivanowna cordially wel- 
comed them, attached the Princess Menschikoff to her 
suite as lady of honour, and found her a husband in 
the Duke of Biren's son. 

Young Menschikoff was given a fiftieth part of the 
paternal property, which had been confiscated to the 
Empress, and allowed to enjoy what money his father 
had banked abroad. But the Oranienbaum Palace was 
not restored to him. That remained Crown property, 



289 



Celebratet) Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

with nothing left to tell of its passing master but a 
princely crown carved over the principal entrance. 

The Menschikoff princess, now become Duchess of 
Biren, scrupulously preserved in a cedar chest the 
Siberian peasant's garments with which she had en- 
tered St. Petersburg; and she would go and take 
them out on the anniversary of her return, so that 
her heart might remain chastened in prosperity — 
fleeting at all courts, but particularly so in the Russian 
one. 



290 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CORRUPTION IN RUSSIA 

In Russia official corruption has been raised to the 
degree of an institution. The difficulty in reforma- 
tion rests in the instantaneous impulse of all depart- 
ments, if one is examined, to cry out against investiga- 
tion. Abuses are the ark ! woe to whomsoever assails 
it — the thunderbolts are launched at him ! There are 
hundreds of persons in office who have the standing 
right to head their letter-paper, " By supreme order! " 

Alexander I. had a privy counsellor, Speranski, 
whose high intelligence he fully appreciated. He 
commenced general reforms under his hints and on 
his plans. In a word, the future of Russia was going 
to be ameliorated by this one man's brains and by his 
single hand, when the Titan Abuse roared with its 
three hundred heads. From the climax of his master's 
favour, Speranski was dislodged by his foes. He was 
accused of counterfeiting the imperial signature in 
order to rob the treasury. Imagine a Czar's confiden- 
tial counsellor liable to such an absurd slander! In 
1812, on leaving the palace after a conference with the 

Emperor, he was whisked away in a carriage without 

291 



Cclebtateb Crimes ot the IRussian Court 

time to bid his daughter farewell. A year afterward, 
he had a petition smuggled to Alexander to inform 
him that he was starving tO' death. This begging 
letter struck the autocrat by its simplicity. How could 
a man perish of want who had signed for the Czar 
to exhaust a treasury? The inquiry showed that 
Speranski was much poorer than Job, as he had not 
even a dust heap of his own to die upon. The mon- 
arch made him a trifling pension. Strange is the 
justice of sovereigns! The Emperor recognized that 
his agent had been denounced and condemned as a 
forger, losing his post, his fortune, his honours, — he 
had been appointed a knight of the highest order, — 
though guiltless, and instead of restoring him to all the 
past, and reinstating him, he — allowed him a pen- 
sion! Two years later, his innocence was manifest; 
he was allowed to dwell on a lot near Novgorod. Of 
course, he plotted, conspired, used his hidden gains to 
overturn something and be revenged ? — not at all ; 
he translated the " Imitation of Christ." 

In 1816, a ukase pronounced that Speranski was 
clear of all charges. Prudence had dictated his tem- 
porary removal from office! He was appointed gov- 
ernor of Penza. Contentedly enough, he went into 
possession of his Government of Barataria. Some 
more land was added tO' the glebe, and in three years 
he was made governor of Siberia, to carry out a 
reform scheme of his invention there. Nine years 
passed; he came to St. Petersburg. The Emperor 

292 



Corruption in IRussta 

received him as if there were no bad blood between 
them — which is a great deal in a despot. Some sover- 
eigns easily overlook the wrongs they do. But Alex- 
ander dying, and the December conspiracy breaking 
out, as we detailed in the Pestel Plot, Speranski's 
secretary, one Batenkoff, was arrested and " pressed " 
to obtain evidence to incriminate his master. How 
can one believe that a man so unjustly used should not 
cherish enmity? With rancour, he might have dipped 
his finger in the hell-broth of conspiracy. They kept 
the secretary, who could not betray his master, twenty- 
three years in a submarine cell of the St. Petersburg 
Citadel, where he outlasted three jailers. When re- 
leased, he still could not speak. His master could not 
cheer him, as he had died nine years before. 

By the way, at the time I looked at the citadel, it was 
a monument to official extortion. The most remark- 
able feature was the scaffolding around the Petro- 
Paulowski spire. It had been erected about a year, and 
may be there now, for all I doubt. This lingering 
over a " job " is called in this country *' the first ex- 
penses." There is no such expression in Russia as 
" stop the preliminary expenses." They run on. At 
Tzarsko-Celo is a Chinese bridge, on the sides of 
which are Chinese statues on pedestals. One day the 
Empress Catherine, going across, observed : 

" Those figures want freshening up with paint — the 
old colours are flaking off." 

A note was taken of the criticism. Next day a 
293 



(i:elebtate& Crimes ot tbe IRussfan Court 

painter was set to the renovation. Every year, as long 
as the Czarina lived, the repainting was repeated, and 
her decease, for, in Russia, a death does not cancel 
obligations, did not put a stop to the work. So much 
lead and oil have been coated upon the hapless man- 
darins that they have lost all semblance to any form — 
even Mongolian. To reach the wood, one would have 
to dig down through inches of pigment. This is 
merely " preliminary expense." 

Catherine IL was disgusted with tallow candles, and 
wax ones were not common, even in palaces, in her 
reign. Up to her time the coarser sort was the sole 
illuminant in the imperial residences. She forbade 
that they should be used under her roof, not even in 
the porter's lodge. Nevertheless, on running over her 
household accounts, two' years later, she came across 
the entry: "Candles, 1,500 rubles." Wishing to 
know who had run counter to her order, and when, 
she made inquiries. It was discovered that the Grand 
Duke Paul, coming back from hunting, had asked for 
a candle-end to' salve a gall on the heel from his heavy 
boots. The candle-end had been brought him, not 
worth a copeck; and the copeck had grown, by Rus- 
sian official compound interest, into that enormous sum. 
This was again but a preliminary expense. 

Something akin occurred to the Czar Nicholas, 
who was going over the private disbursement with 
Prince Wolkonski, and found 4,500 rubles set down 
yearly for " lip salve." The amount seemed prodigious 

294 



Corruption in IRussta 

to him. But it was explained that winter was hard 
upon the Hps, and that the Czarina and her ladies used 
at least a pot per day of unguent to keep their lips 
fresh and free from cracking. The Emperor granted 
that the ladies had red lips and uncracked ones, but 
the outlay seemed considerable. On questioning his 
wife, she indignantly declared that she held cosmetics 
in horror. Her ladies and maids of honour, also ex- 
amined, replied that, as her Majesty loathed pomades, 
they did not take the liberty to use them. Lastly, the 
Grand Duke Alexander cudgelled his brains and re- 
called that, once upon a time, he had chapped lips, and 
had ordered a pot of cold cream. A similar box being 
sent out for, it was priced at less than a ruble. This 
was not in the same proportion as the candles at a 
penny the ejid. But candle or pomade, these were 
but preliminary expenses. 

Hence there should be no astonishment that the 
scaffolding on St. Peter-Paul spire should still be up. 
Yet there was, for more activity, a precedent which 
ought to have spurred the architect. 

In 1830 it was noticed that one of the wings of 
the gilded angel, which tips the pinnacle and serves as 
weathercock, was so badly broken as to be liable 
to fall at the first storm. To repair it regularly re- 
quired the erection of a very tall scaffold, and conse- 
quently a very costly one, as the spire was four hundred 
feet high. The estimate was about fifty thousand 
dollars, preliminary expenses. It was exacting to 

295 



Cclchvatc^ Crimes ot tbe IRussian Court 

fasten an angel's wing, calling for five tacks at ten 
thousand dollars a tack. 

While deliberating on the problem, and leaving the 
wing to hang on or fly off, — some economists, arguing 
that, with one opinion, the figure would spin around 
the more freely, even though a little askew, — a 
peasant workman ventured to have his say. He was 
one Peter Telushkine, a lead-roofer by craft, but a 
steeple- jack by ambition. He asked leave to try to 
make the repairs, without any scaffold or any pay 
but for his work, leaving the extra remuneration to 
the architect, relieved of embarrassment. This propo- 
sition was so saving that it was adopted. Economy 
was for once having an inning! 

The climbing and nailing was accomplished to the 
great glory of Master Telushkine, who had no help 
in his task but a rope; hammer and nails he carried 
with him for the angelic renovation of limb-setting. 
It was a great sight for the townsfolk and great pride 
for the common people, of Telushkine's persuasion, 
when they saw their hero at his coign of vantage, and 
making the sign of the cross in gratitude that the angel 
had not let him break his neck. The wing was secured, 
and in five days Telushkine came down again to the 
street pavement more substantial than the bronze slope 
where he had worked, although terra iirma in a city 
built on piles is rather fluctuating. A frenzied mob 
and an infuriated architect awaited him. Amid the 



296 



Corruption in 1Ru55ia 

congratulations of the populace the architect stepped 
forward. 

" You sloven, the wing is not on straight ! " 

" I believe your Excellency is incorrect/' faltered 
the climber. 

" I maintain that it is put on awry ! an angel's wing 
is not like ordinary wings. It ought to be set plumb- 
right!" 

" Very well," said Peter, " let's go up and put it 
straight ! " And he made the ascent the second time. 
But as the expense concerned the architect, Telushkine 
was not a penny the richer. He was forgotten for 
some months. But a gentleman heard of the event, 
and brought it under the eyes of the Czar Nicholas, 
who called the fellow tO' receive a medal and four 
thousand rubles. Possessor of such vast wealth, Peter 
became ruined. From sobriety or lack of funds, he 
had not been a drinking man. But from thencefor- 
ward he did not know a sober day. Unfortunately, in 
Russia, — and elsewhere, by the way, — drunkenness 
is encouraged by the government, inasmuch as the 
trade in liquors of thirty different sorts is farmed out 
to speculators, Olkupchicks, so that the more drinkers 
the more revenue. Telushkine was busy in upholding 
the liquor-licensing system. The result was that, 
during the Cholera Riots of 1831, being completely 
intoxicated, he threw a doctor out of a fourth-story 
window at the Haymarket, where the worst violence 
was done. Though a life-saver, the doctor was killed 

297 



Celebrate^ Crtmes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

outright. Pointed out as a principal rioter, and con- 
victed of killing the doctor, Telushkine was knouted 
and sent to Siberia. As a good judge of such sen- 
tences says : "I believe in the Resurrection, but not 
in a return from Siberia." He was never more heard 
of. There were neither angels, nor steeples to climb, 
out there. 

When I was at Astrakhan, Admiral Machine — it 
is not a comic opera name — offered to transport me to 
Baku, or, at least, as far as Darbend, on the steamer 
Troupmann, when it made its return trip from Max- 
anderan. The steamer arrived while I made an inland 
trip, and was about starting, but the admiral, while 
remembering his promise, sO' strongly vaunted the 
comforts of the land journey that I was assured that 
I lost nothing by relinquishing the waterway. I 
guessed that there was a snake in the grass. I be- 
sought the naval chief to pocket national pride and 
tell me frankly about the voyage on the Caspian Sea. 
Driven tO' the wooden wall, or to the edge of his con- 
science, the dignitary confessed that he might redeem 
his promise to ship us by the Troupmann, but while 
he would answer for that much, he would not for our 
landing. 

The Caspian navy is a curio-us affair. It comprised 
four boats, but two were embedded in sand, and one 
was disabled, as one of her wheels was broken. The 
only one left was that offered us. But it had taken 
eighteen days to get here from Mazanderan, and as 

298 



(Torruptton in IRussia 

its machinery was far from reliable, there was no tell- 
ing where she would make her next landing. She 
proceeded mainly under sail, steamship though she 
was classed. That was why her arrival at Baku could 
not be accurately scheduled. Still we had to entrust 
our baggage, to lighten us, to the steamer. I treas- 
ured my travelling *' plunder," but as we were not 
sure of reaching Baku, why worry about our cargo 
being no more sure? 

Whence came this sorry state of the Russian navy 
of the Caspian Sea? *' Tchin" 

" Tchin " is not only rank, from the Chinese sense, 
but the prerogatives attached to that rank. 

Military engineering gives the " tchin '' \sy the army 
to control naval construction. As there is a large 
margin for profit on building steam craft, the Ship- 
building Department built as many steamers as possi- 
ble. As pyroscapes were a new invention, and nothing 
known about them, construction was proceeded with 
in order that the way to construct them should be 
learnt by practice! It costs the realm millions to 
instruct the military engineers, but what does that 
matter? private shipyards would build sounder vessels, 
and charge less, and then they would be accepted only 
after trial. But that would be plain sailing, and it is 
only long voyages that pay. But this would derange 
administrative machinery, and what would happen if 
the routine were hampered? 

It is incredible to hear the Russians themselves re- 
299 



Celebrated Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

late about thefts committed in establishments, and 
especially in the governmental ones. All the world 
knows of the drains and knows the leeches, but the 
latter continue to bleed and the flow increases. 

The only Russian who does not know what is going 
on and going off, is the chief of the state. He must 
not be told about it lest it afflict him ! 

Under Czar Nicholas, particularly at the Crimean 
War time, the robberies attained a height and romance 
which credit the perpetrators with prodigious wealth 
of invention. We allude to robberies which not only 
enrich but ennoble the culprit, and are styled by the 
polite " specs." 

In military speculations, the beef contractors gain 
the most. Like the ancient Egyptians, they ought to 
raise altars to the Bull Apis ! 

At the time referred to, the Board of the Volovii- 
rati, Fresh Meat Bureau, would receive from the Army 
Supply Board five hundred head of steers and give a 
receipt for six hundred. Here were a hundred head — 
say, eight to ten thousand rubles — which the army 
supply chiefs gained the value of with the turn of the 
hand. The distribution contractors had five hundred 
to account for to the soldiers. We shall see what they 
tasted in the way of beef. The shortage of a hundred 
head had to be made up for by the contractors the best 
way they could manage. If they could not " raise " 
the full number by picking up stray cattle along the 
road, they would bribe a local mayor to certify that a 

300 



Corruption in IRuasia 

bull died in his jurisdiction; this cost a ruble. For 
the money in a lump sum they could make up a bundle 
of death-certificates at wholesale prices. 

An officer narrated to me that, when the Russes 
retreated over the Danube into Russia, he saw the 
manager of the beef contractors carting a carcass, 
and stopping at every stage to get a proof that a 
bull died there, but, at the same time, selling a live one, 
so as to put the cash in his bag, while the soldier 
wanted for even a beef bone to flavour his soup. Of 
five hundred head served out, the men got perhaps 
ten. 

The government received an official report that, for 
prevision, a station was organizing where cattle would 
be kept as reserves. Eighteen hundred were in store, 
at a hundred and fifty a head. This was expensive, but 
in war-times one does not pare cheese. Of course, the 
live stock had to be fed to keep it alive. They were 
kept and charged for, during five months. In war- 
times the provender comes high. But peace was pro- 
claimed, and the meat was no longer wanted on the 
hoof. The animals were to be slaughtered and the 
meat cured for future use. To corn beef, salt is requi- 
site. Salt was ordered in. With the keep and the 
corning, each head came to three hundred rubles. The 
whole ran up into over half a million rubles. It is 
superfluous to mention that not one of the beeves ever 
existed — off paper. 

A Russian servant of mine, who had been a militia- 
301 



GeleDrateO Crimes of tbe IRuastan Court 

man, recounted that he had been member of a miHtary 
company marching from Nijni-Novgorod to the 
Crimea. The captain was allowed a hundred and 
twenty-five rubles to buy beef for the day's supply. 
He did buy one cow at the Nijni market. Every time 
a superior officer came trotting along the line, he would 
say: 

" Halloa ! you have fresh flesh ! what's that for ? " 

" It's a purchase made this morning, colonel (or 
general ) , and my men are going to eat it this evening ! " 

" Lucky dogs ! " the officer would cry, smacking his 
lips and riding on. 

The " lucky dogs " would revel that evening on 
boiled pease, in which was stirred a candle ! The beef 
— ever devoured, but always alive, like the Prome- 
thean liver — arrived in the Crimea, the fattest of the 
troop, as it was the only one never stinted for feed. It 
was in such fine fettle that the captain sold it for a 
third more than it cost. All along the route he had 
charged for a cow at each stage, being paid for a 
hundred and fifty, or more. 

As the colonels have the furnishings of the regi- 
ments, they make a good business of it. In Russia, 
when a colonel incurs censure, he is promoted to be a 
general ; he has saved enough to pay for the rise. Let 
us see how '' the Clothing Colonels " manage — easily 
and " without sinning," the cant expression for swin- 
dling and any theft less than highway robbery. The 
flour and cloth and harness wants are taken by the colo- 

302 



Cotruption in IRussta 

nel in ample quantity, but a tithe remains in his hands. 
In cavalry regiments, the suppression is on the forage 
and equipment. The largest profit is made on '' the 
official prices," — a name for the set terms (spravo- 
schnya tseni), — laid down for supplies at halting- 
places and quarters in villages or towns. The 
colonel and the town authorities arrange the figures. 
The aldermen furnish the attestations, on which the 
officers are paid. They are enhanced so that the 
authorities can pocket the third and the officers the 
rest of the bonus. 

In Russia, the principle is that an inferior in rank 
has no rights against his superior. Certainly, there 
are inspectors charged to see that the soldiers are not 
wronged in their food, equipment, and quarters. They 
are ordered to receive complaints. But all privates' 
complaints must be reviewed by the superior officer. 
The Russ '^ Tommy " has the right to complain — 
very good! but the colonel has the power to order 
him up to the triangle to receive five hundred stripes 
with the rod, and, when his back is healed, another 
half-hundred, and so on till he dies. The soldier 
winks at the despoilment rather than be flogged to 
death. 

The War Department chief, who knows all about 
this, but tolerates it, receives stars and garters, while 
the poor musket-bearer receives the bastinado. 

As before said, the Czar is kept out of the secret. 
Thus, the news of the Battle on the Alma was kept 

303 



Celebrated Crimes of tbe IRusstan Court 

from the Emperor Nicholas lest it vex him; so that, 
when he did learn of the disasters, he preferred to 
poison himself rather than sign a humiliating peace. 
This news arrived by a private courier, so that the 
War Department could not be accused of vexing his 
Majesty. 

It may as well be said that the Emperors were not 
without their private savings-banks. When a banished 
lord was by a miracle brought back from Siberia, and 
by another and greater miracle allowed to go to the 
storehouse for the imperial confiscations, — another 
custom of the country, — he might see the accumula- 
tion of vanished reigns : silken ribbons, embroidered 
with gold and set with pearls, imperial snuff-boxes 
studded with diamonds, precious furniture, valuable 
garments, priceless furs, presents with which mon- 
archs soothed their conscience, some prizes for rare 
devotedness, and — a great many — payments for 
dastardly deeds. This was the " captains' share " of 
the spoil. 

Nicholas's respect for the law was great, but not 
above that for the '' tchin/' Captain Violet's adven- 
ture testifies to that. As the name implies, Violet 
was an officer from France, in the Russian service. 
He was charged with an errand direct from the Czar. 
Like all imperial messengers, he had a Crown permit, 
Padaroini, warranting him to take horses at any post- 
house, and have them sent for if none were in the 
stable. As he was travelling day and night, he carried 

304 



Corruption in IRussla 

firearms. Arriving at one posting-house, where the 
post-master, being out of horses, had to borrow of a 
neighbour, he took a cup of tea while waiting. A 
general officer came up, who called for a relay, but 
was told that there were no horses in. 

" But they are harnessing a pair to that kibitka 
there!" 

" Yes, but they are for a special courier." 

"What rank?" 

" Captain." 

" Then unhitch those horses, and put them to my 
carriage. I am a general ! " 

The Frenchman heard all this, and came outdoors 
just as the innkeeper was carrying out the great man's 
order. 

" Excuse me, Excellency," said Violet, " but I must 
make you observe that, though but a captain, I am 
the Czar's special messenger, and, as such, take the 
step over anybody, be it general or even a grand duke ! 
So be good enough to give me back my team ! " 

" Oh, has it come to this ? Suppose I do not restore 
the horses, eh ? " 

" I shall use my warrant, and by virtue of my 
orders take them by force." 

"Ho, ho, force!" 

" Yes, Excellency, if you drive me to that ex- 
tremity." 

" You are a saucy dog ! " and he boxed the captain's 
ear. 

305 



Celebrated Cttmes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

The latter plucked a pistol out of his belt and fired ; 
the general fell stark dead. Captain Violet took the 
horses, accomplished his errand, and then gave himself 
up to the authorities. They referred the case to the 
Czar. 

" Were the pistols ready loaded ? were they at hand 
— in his belt ? He did not go indoors after them ? 
Well, then, there was no malice aforethought, and I 
pardon him ! " 

Not only did he pardon the sinner, through '' tchin/' 
but, at the first occasion, appointed Violet a lieutenant- 
colonel. 

Sometimes the " tchin " is purely honorary, but the 
enjoyers of the privilege learn how to turn the silver 
lining to their profit, even though they are the best 
and bravest of men. 

The cavalry General Miloradowitch, " the Russian 
Murat," by reason of his brilliant dash, had reaped 
from his different military posts the sum of sixty 
thousand rubles a year, without having enough to 
live upon, thanks to his extravagance. After a cam- 
paign where he had exhibited prodigies of valour, the 
Emperor Alexander said to him : 

" General, I have done for you all I could think 
of — nevertheless, if there is one reward omitted, 
name it ! frankly ! " 

" Sire, I have always had one whim, and my cup 
would be full if your Majesty would grant that. I 



306 



Corruption in 1Ru6Sia 

wish to wear the simple soldiers' cross of St. George 
— if your Majesty allows that I deserve it! " 

" Twenty times, but you have won the grand cross 
of the order ! " 

" I told your Majesty, it is a fancy! " 

The St. George's cross, in Russia, is given solely 
to warriors for a splendid exploit — of the privates ; 
for survivors for taking a stand of colours, or a bat- 
tery, carrying a town by storm, or winning a pitched 
battle. The cross gives the winner double pay, but to 
the high grades merely the added lustre. 

Miloradowitch was given his patent, and went to 
the Treasury, where they were going to pay him ac- 
cording to the tariff, five thousand rubles. 

" Excuse me," said the commander, become a 
private for the nonce, "you mistake, my friend; I 
ought to get ten thousand, and not five. This is the 
soldiers' cross, entitling the bearer to double pay; 
mark that my pay, as general, when I presented this 
warrant, was fifty thousand rubles. I want five hun- 
dred thousand down! " 

The demand was sufficiently grave for the question 
to be referred to the Czar, who thereupon understood 
Miloradowitch's '' fancy," but he decided that it was 
law and payment must be made. And the Russian 
Murat was so paid till he was killed in the republican 
rising of 1825, as we have related in its place. 

Such problems in financial arithmetic drive the cal- 
culator distracted in this country. The Cossack, for 

307 



Celebrate& Crimes ot tbe IRusstan Court 

instance, has to provide a horse and weapons, and, 
with rations, be content with thirteen rubles monthly; 
if his horse be killed, in war or by accident on service, 
he receives only twenty rubles. He must work out 
the sum to his profit " without sinning," which be- 
comes his business. 

The imperial chef has a hundred rubles a month, 
out of which he pays his assistants, one a hundred and 
fifty rubles, the other a hundred and twenty. 

In the system of dishonesty may be ranked horse- 
stealing as an established industry. The landowner 
(pomeschik) knows who among his serfs practises this 
trade; but he takes good heed not to denounce him, 
for the whole village profits by it. The local police, 
the constable (ispravnik), is gagged, as he receives 
his share. If the running off of the stock is on a 
large scale and leads to noise, he makes a search in 
the peasants' huts, where a hare could not be hidden, 
and where nothing is found. Why? Because the 
stolen objects are kept in the " Big House " stables, 
where nobody dare go poking and prying. The thieves 
do not skim the surrounding villages, which thereby 
become " fences," receiving-stores. 

Do not run away with the impression that the craft 
is pursued here and there by isolated efforts; on the 
contrary, it is an organized occupation, systematic 
and permanent; youth are brought up to it, as, else- 
where, boys are taught to be jockeys. The mem- 



308 



Corruption in 1Ru66ia 

bers of this horse-trade form a corporation known by 
secret signs, and mutually aid one another. 

Whenever the censorship of the press is relaxed, 
letters exposing the abuse flock upon the editors; but 
none are printed. I know a journalist who has ten 
accusations in his pigeonholes, and is waiting to get 
a chance to use them. Such business is expressly 
prohibited by all law ; but it cannot be too plainly said 
and too often repeated that, in Russia, the laws are in 
the hands of functionaries who live, not by the practice 
of the law, but by selling immunity from its clutches. 
This is clear from such a fact as that a parish con- 
stable or sheriff in a district is paid two hundred 
rubles a year ; but he has to spend thrice as much in 
riding and driving alone to " cover his rounds " ; add 
that such officials are always nominated by the land- 
owners. 

The great scourge in Russia is that a public func- 
tionary cannot be prosecuted. Granted, he can be 
complained of, but everybody knows from the start 
that the plaint will not be considered. Higher than 
the petty officials is the provincial governor; but he 
is the bosom friend of the landowners; higher than 
he is the Marshal of the Noble Court (the Court of 
Chivalry!), but he is appointed by the nobles, and he 
certainly is not going, for a poor clod's sake, to lose 
a vote at his reelection! 

The saddest thing is that wrongs go on without 
being stigmatized. Russia has no voice of public 

309 



(Ielebtate& (Trtmcs ot tbe IRussian Court 

opinion ; that is, the punishment for those whom law 
does not flog. 

Justice is represented blindfolded. In Russia, it 
implies that she must not see wrong-doing. 



THE END. 



310 



(EbronoIOQical ^able of tbe IRulere 
of lRu00ia 



In the early centuries " Old Russia " was composed of counties, 
each having its own lord, the chief of which contended arnong 
themselves for the title of Grand Duke. Moscow finally gained 
the supremacy, gradually subduing her sister counties. 

Daniel, 1303, was the real founder of the empire; succeeded 

by his son — 

Yuri Danilovich, 1303 - 26 ; succeeded by his brother — 

Ivan L, 1328-40. He was called the Grand Duke of "All the 
Russias," and was succeeded by his sons — 

Simeon the Proud, 1340 - 53 and — 

Ivan II., 1353-59- 

1359 - 80, a period of civil wars. 

Dmitri, 1380 - 89, son of Ivan II. ; succeeded by his son — 

Vasili (Basil), 1389 -1425; succeeded by 

Vasili the Blind, 1425 - 62. 

Ivan III., 1462- 1505, son of Vasili, took the title of Czar; killed 
the Czarowitch Ivan, and was succeeded by his son — 

Vasili Ivanovich, 1505-33; succeeded by his son — 

Ivan IV., 1533-84 (Ivan the Terrible). Until her death, his 
mother, Helena C^linski, was regent. His son — 

Feodor, 1584-98 (an imbecile), ruled under the Godunof Re- 
gency, and ends the Rurik line. 

Boris (Godunof), 1598 -1605, usurped the throne. 

In 1603 the claimant called the " False Demetrius " invaded Rus- 
sia, but was slain. Other Pretenders arose after the death 
of Boris, and the realm was disturbed by factional wars 
until — 

Michael Romanoff, 1613 - 45, was elected Czar. He was suc- 
ceeded by his son — 

Alexis, 1645-76; succeeded by his son — 

Feodor, 1676 - 82, whose sister. Czarina Sophia, was regent until 
1689 during the reigns of her brothers — 

Ivan V., 1682-89, and 

Peter I., 1682 - 1725 (Peter the Great), who reigned conjointly 
until the death of Ivan V., when Peter came into full power. 
311 



CbronoloQtcal Uable 

The Czarowitch Alexis died in prison, 1718, and Peter I. 

was succeeded by his widow — 
Catherine I., 1725 - 27 ; succeeded by the son of Alexis — 
Peter II., 1727 - 30, Menschikof being regent. Then came 
Anna, 1730-40, daughter of Ivan V. She appointed Ivan VI., 

son of her niece, Czarowitch, with Biren as regent, but Ivan 

was imprisoned and died, and the throne was seized by the 

daughter of Peter the Great — 
Elizabeth, 1741-62; succeeded by her nephew — 
Peter III., 1762 - 68. Murdered by order of his wife Catherine, 

who usurped the throne. 
Catherine II., 1768-96 (Catherine the Great); succeeded by 

her son — 
Paul I., 1796-1801. Assassinated; and succeeded by his son — 
Alexander I., 1801 - 25. His natural successor, Constantine, son 

of Paul, abdicated of his own free will, and the next Czar 

was Constantine's brother — 
Nicholas I., 1825-55; succeeded by his son — 
Alexander IL, 1855-81. Assassinated; succeeded by his son — 
Alexander III., 1881-94; succeeded by 
Nicholas XL, 1894 — 



312 



•fln&ci 



Abdications, 157; of Ivan III., 10; Alexander I., 219; Grand 
Duke Constantine, 219. 

Adaschef, pious nobleman, 5. 

Adrian, the Patriarch, 56. 

Adventurer, French, 38; another, 304; Cossack, 119. 

" Adventuress, the German," 164, 168. 

Alexander I., 197 and following, 202; and Paul I., 203-204; 
tempted by Pahlen, 205-206; proclaimed by rebels, 214; 
accedes to plot, 215; at father's state bed, 216; banishes 
accomplices, 216; exiles Pahlen, 217; founded Lyceum, 242; 
and his counsellor, 291-292; pardons rebels, 240; shuns the 
world, 218; travels to avoid assassins, 219; secret abdi- 
cation, 219; dies of fever, 219. 

Alexander II. as boy, in revolution, 227. 

Alexis, Czar, 35 ; treatment of serfs, 35 ; Alexis, Czarowitch to 
Peter I., conspires, 57; trial, 17, 18; death sentence, 59. 

Alma, Battle of the, news kept from Czar, 304. 

Anastasia (Greek princess Sophia), Czarina to Ivan IV., 11. 

Anna, Czarina, gift to St. Sergius's Shrine, 2; as Princess of 
Holstein, 102; restores the Menschikofs, 289; executions 
under her reign, 105; her sister, 113-114; death, 114; suc- 
cession to Ivan, grandnephew of Peter I., 114. 

Anna, Princess of Brunswick, Grand Duchess of Russia, claim 
annulled, banished, died, 109. 

Archangel, 8; state prison, 117. 

Army, rotten with treachery, 219; live stock fraud, 301. 

Astrakhan, " Star of the Desert," 6. 

Azof, 81, 96. 

Bariatinski (Teploff), Prince, 160; coup de grace to Peter, 161. 

Benningsen, Czaricide, 209. 

Bestuchef, revolutionist, Nicholas, 221, 223; Michael, his brother, 
222, 223 ; wit on scaffold, 232 ; cynical motto of an ancestor, 
hi; this. Minister, no; motto of, in; Alexander, 230; 
poem to, 231. 

Biren, Count, Regent, 103, 114; Prime Minister, hated the Rus- 
sians, trait of insolence, 102 ; prompted his brother to 
inveigle Princess Elizabeth, 105; deposed, 114; in Siberia, 
104; recalled, 131-132. 



Biren, Duchess of, a Menschikof, loi; preserves her convict 
dress, 290. 

Branincka, Countess, Potemkine's niece, gives author details, 163, 

Brunswick, Duke Antony Ulrich, married daughter of Empress 
Anna's sister, 114; Generalissimo, 114; arrested, 107; exiled 
and title annulled, 109. (Father of Czar Ivan Antonowitch. ) 

Burchard, Gen. Chris. See Munich. 

Canals, 45, 64, 115. 

Candles, costly, 294. 

Catherine I., Czarina to Peter I. "the Great," life, 84 and fol- 
lowing; her husband, 92-93 ; mother of Princesses Anna and 
Elizabeth, at Moscow, 92 ; saves Russian army, 95 ; order 
of St. Catherine's Knights in her honour, 95; proclaimed 
Czarina, 63; snubbed by France, 56; deceives the Czar, 60; 
forced to witness dead paramour, 62 ; accused of poisoning 
the Czar, 6s; dies of poison (?), loo-ioi. 

Catherine II., Czarina, called "the Great," life, 128 and follow- 
ing; name of Sophia changed to Catherine, 128; married, 
128, 129; appearance, 129; hatred for son Paul, 129; plot- 
ting Czaricide, 130; her story of the murder of her husband, 
140 and following; at Tsarsko-Celo, 253; her favourites, 
179. 

Champ de Mars, at St. Petersburg, 181. 

" Charles the Rash," the New, 49. 

Charles XII. of Sweden, 44; war with Peter I., 44; narrow 
escape, 50; wounded, 54-55; no longer "the Invincible," 84. 

Chetardie, French ambassador, sent home, iii. 

China and Russia, 80, 

Chouiski, family, Prince Regent, rule and fate, 2. 

Church and state, 50; protest against Church interference, 226; 
built on crescent, 6; corruption repressed in landholding, 8; 
bells melted for cannon, 45; a bell flogged and banished, 
19- 

Code, Russian, first, 8 ; Peter I.'s, 35 ; Pestel's, 220, 229, 236. 

Commiseration for political convicts, 275. 

Constantine, Grand Duke, 202, 207; warned of treason, 219; 
secret abdication, 219. 

Constitution not understood by populace, 224. 

Corruption under Nicholas, 300. 

Cossacks. See Mazeppa. The Hetman Apostol, 231 ; Cossack's 
dead-horse claim, 308. 

Cronstadt, 37, 38, 137, 152. 

Czar, the Pretended (Demetrius), 14-30; "Czar's Eye," 60; say- 
ing about their presence, 182, 

Daschkoff, Princess, active conspirator, 137, 146. 

Demetrius (Dmitri), the False, 14 and following; the True, 

same reference. 
Denmark, supports Russia, 45. 
Derpt, battle, 84. 

314 



fn^ex 

Diadem, Imperial Russian, 169. 

Diebetsch, General, Chief of Staff, removed for treason, 219. 
Dolgoruki (or Dolgorowki), 69, 274; assists Peter II.'s escape, 
287; Prince, in exile, 286; touching farewell, 288. 

Elizabeth, Czarina, " Petrowna (Peter the Great's daughter)," 
French official opinion, 105; calls Duke of Holstein to 
Russia, 104; thwarted in her right of succession, 114; 
popular, 106 ; called " the Clement " for abolishing capital 
punishment, 233; married, no; colonel of a regiment, no; 
as Grand Duchess, 102; Dutch ambassador's opinion, 112; 
proof of her good sense, 128; legitimacy in doubt, 168; her 
clandestine daughter. See Tarakanoff. 

Eudoxie, Czarina, " Feodorowna," 15, 18, 57; flogged, 58, 92; 
a nun, 169. 

False Demetrius. See Demetrius. 

" Father," affectionate title to Czars, 157. 

Feodor, Czar, 14, 18, 21 ; death, 68 ; ascribed to poison, 69. 

" Feodorowna," his mother. Czarina. See Euxodie. 

Fleet, first Russian, 36. 

French influence on Russian court, 107, no. 

Galitzin, in battle, 49; Vice- Chancellor, 142 and following, 
Gleboff (or Glieboff) Conspiracy, 56 and following. 
Glinskis, Regents, 3, 4. 

Godunof, Boris, Regent, 15, 16, 17; prophecy a la Macbeth, 21, 
25, 26; death, 27. 

Hanging abolished, 236; revived for Pestel rebels, 236. 

Helena, Czarina, 2. 

Helena, Princess, Tarakanoff, daughter of Empress Elizabeth. 

See Tarakanoff. 
Herrings, landlocked, 2>^. 
Horse-stealing, an established trade, 308. 
Hospitality, general, 177. 

Ismailof, Gen. M., 35, 142, 157; Ismailof Regiment bought over, 
135. 

Ivan IV., "The Terrible," his wars, 5-8; marries Greek im- 
perial heiress Sophia, 8; changes old Russ emblem of 
knight to double-headed eagle, 7, 8; his luxury, 9; abdi- 
cates, 10 ; return to power, mad outrages, slays his _ son, 
tortures and murders, 11; dies, 12; Czar Nicholas's opinion 
of him, 12, 13 ; called, also, " the Great." 

Ivan v., imbecile, wedded, 74; his double throne, 34; dies, 81. 

Ivan VI., Antonowitch (son of Antony, Duke of Brunswick), 
109, 113 and following; immured in monastery as a boy, 
117; drugged (?), 117; opinions of him by Dutch and 
English ambassadors, 118, 119; attempted liberation, or 
murder (?), 121; unique coin, 123. 

315 



fn^ex 

Justice, why blindfolded in Russia, 310. 

Kasan taken, 5. 

Kief, 229. 

Kolomenskoe, Peter I.'s boyhood home, 35. 

Kostroma, home of the first Romanoff, 68. 

Kurakine, Princess, reigning beauty, 135, 

Lacroix, Moens de, treasonable plot, 60-63; execution, 97-98. 

Ladoga, Lake, 113; canal, 115; built by Munich, 115; French 
professors' adventure, 123. 

Lapukine family {see Eudoxie), reference to, 235. 

Lestocq, court favourite, hero of Scribe's opera, son of a barber- 
surgeon, surgeon to Grand Duchess Elizabeth, 102; private 
physician, 105; plots to make his patroness Empress, 105; 
talent as artist, 107; ennobled and pensioned, no; tried, 
tortured, exiled, 111-112. 

Lieven, noble deed to rebel, 224. 

Marienburg, 84. 

Massacre of the militia, 80. 

Mazeppa, the Cossack Hetman, 50, 119. 

Meat bureau frauds, 300-301 ; one carcass to five hundred 
steers ( !), 301. 

Mecklenburg, Duke and Duchess of, parents of Ivan VL, 114. 

Mehemet (Mahomet), Grand Vizier, 93. 

Menschikof, Premier and favourite to Peter I. and Catherine, his 
consort, 86 and following; accused of poisoning Czar, 63 ; 
and poisoning Catherine II., 100; aspires to rule, 100; plans 
to espouse his daughter to Czarowitch, 100, 277; supreme, 
100; his wealth, 276; proclaims Catherine Czarina, 276-277; 
banished to Siberia, 100; degraded, 278; Princess Menschi- 
kof dies, 279; victims' reprisals, 280; pious submission in 
misery, 281-282; eldest daughter dies, 284; the youngest re- 
called to court, 287. 

Metropolitan of the Church preaches submission, protested 
against, 226. 

Michael, Grand Duke, under fire, 222-224; wins over rebels, 225, 
228. 

Michelet, French historian, on Catherine 11. , 164. 

Miloradowitch, General, "the Russian Murat," Governor of St. 
Petersburg, shot in revolution, 221 ; prefers the private's pay, 
306. 

Minine, mujik, popular representative, 67. 

Mirowitch, Cossack adventurer, kidnapper of Czar Ivan VI., 
plot frustrated, 119 and following; another version, II9>* 
execution, 122. 

Monk Sylvester, 4, 5. 

Moscow, " city of villages," " Queen of Russian towns," 27-29, 
33, 50; Czar Peter enters, 75; taken by the Poles, 166. 

Moscow Regiment revolts, 221 ; the loyal, 224, 225. 

316 



'ffn^ex 

"Mother," affectionate title for the Czarina, 134. 

Munich, Count, Premier, general, Christopher Burchard, 104; 
Prime Minister, 114; ousted, 105; arrested, 109; death- 
doomed but exiled, no; arrests Premier Biren, 115; com- 
mander-in-chief, 115; cures "malingering" in army, 116; 
daredevil at Otchakof siege, 116; recalled, 131-132; counsels 
Peter III., 152, 153; disgusted with Czar's weakness, 157; 
submits, 159. 

Muravief, Artamon, conspirator, colonel, Czaricide, 220, 231 ; his 
brother Matthew, suicide at defeat, 229; their father an 
erudite in exile, 230-232; Nikita, 218. 

Narva, siege, 48; Russian assault, 48. 

Naryschine (Nariskine) family allied to throne, 33. 

Naryschine, Ivan, 69; murdered, 70-71. 

Nathalia, Czarina, 34, 68; flight with infant son, Peter, 69. 

Naval forces revolt, 221. 

Navy, the Caspian, 298. 

Neva, blessing of, 65 ; legend of the frozen, 176. 

Nicholas, Czar, as grand duke, warned of plot, 219; braves 
mutineers, 223; life at stake, 226; defies the guns, 227; his 
justice, 272; his "clemency," 22i(i', favours Pushkine, poet, 
246-247; and Rebel Ryleief, 234; signs death-warrant in 
Pestel case, 233 ; kept in official darkness about the Cri- 
mean War, 303; ferrets out "the lip salve," 294; corrup- 
tion under Nicholas, 300; jest on visitor, 126; death 
(suspected suicide), 304. 

Nobles' privileges curtailed, 8. 

Novgorod the Great, 7, 44. 

Official pay under outlay, 308-309. 

Olga, the first regent, 2. 

Oranienbaum, 139, 148, 156; confiscated to Crown, 289. 

Orloff family, source, 82 ; five brothers, 135, 138, 143, 155 ; Greg- 
ory Orloff and Empress Elizabeth's consort, 11, in, 120 and 
following; and Ivan's " suppression," 134 and following', 
Alexis, Czaricide, 160 and following; his report of the regi- 
cide, 161 ; rewards, same; Italian tour to remove an obsta- 
cle, 167 and following; feasted as imperial favourite, his pro- 
digious strength, rewards, 161 ; captaincy of guards, 169, 223 ; 
estimate of his favours, 162; Alexis, younger, practical joke 
on Frenchmen, 123 and following. 

Ostermann, Prime Minister, 105; arrested, 109; exiled, no. 

Pahlen, Paul, Count, Premier, Baron in Courland, 197 and fol~ 
lowing; as provincial governor, welcomed Paul I. (as grand 
duke, under disgrace), 197; made Governor of St. Peters- 
burg, 197; plots regicide, 199; his ruse, 200-201; tempts 
the Czarowitch to rebel, 205-206; releases state prisoners, 
208; places Alexander on throne, 216; banished, 217. 

Palaces, Imperial, Peterhof, 137, i45; at St. Petersburg, Her- 

317 



irnt)ex 

mitage 163; the Red Palace, 181, 213; subterranean way 
to Military Barracks, 183; the Winter Palace, new and old, 
141 ; the Wooden Palace, 146. 

Fanine, Count, Prime Minister, 137 and following; his motto, 137. 

Passek, Captain, conspirator, arrested, 137; the Czar's comment, 
148. 

Patkul, patriot, 44 and following. 

Patriarch (Greek Church) Adrian, 56; another, 71. 

Paul I., Czar, " Petrowitch (son of Peter I.)," parentage, 129; 
legend of origin, 131; doubts on legitimacy, 168; birth, 129; 
appearance, 129; by an eye-witness, 184; crazy conduct, 186- 
187; as Czarowitch, 145, 197; ascension, 131, 181 and fol- 
lowing, 197 and following; murdered, 212, 213; official ac- 
count of death, 216; memory insulted by poet, 243; his 
Empress seeks revenge, 213; suspicion of poison, 214. 

Paulovski Regiment, 181. 

Pestel, revolutionist, 230 and following, 220; his five-year plot 
extinct in a day, 228; triall, 229, 230, 233; punishments, same; 
executions, 238; release of exiles, 240; his Code ("The 
Russian Rights of Man"), 220, 229, 236; Napoleon or Wash- 
ington? 230; Dumas's prophecy, 240; epigram on the sen- 
tences, 246. 

Peter I., Czar, " the Great," 31 and following; saved as a boy, 
72; boyhood, 35, 74; his Little House, 31 ; his (dual) throne, 
34; the Dutch boat, 35; another boat, 36; his "academy," 
35; frustrated regicide, 34, 35; and the serfs, 35, 36; as 
shipwright, 37; in sea storm, 38; his civilizing means, 
45; his body-guard, 73; defeats the Danes, 44; pro- 
claims himself Czar, 74; enters Moscow as Emperor, 75, 
"^y; at Pultawa Battle, 54, 55; first European tour 
as "Count North," 81, 76, 78; foils conspirators, 72; at 
'Marienburg, meets his future Empress Catherine, 87; war 
with Turks, 94-96; as a doctor, 91; in epileptic fit, 94; a 
mad spell, 61 ; his Black Man, 241 ; condemns his son, 
Czarowitch Alexis, for treason, 59; his mercy (?) to him, 
59 ; condemns his consort Catherine, 61 ; rescues the ship- 
wrecked, 45, 64-65; dying words, 65, 66; his aims, 32; 
death, 64; "Life" commanded of poet Pushkine, 247. 

Peter II., Czar, son of Peter the Great and Catherine I., escapes 
from thraldom, 277, 287. 

Peter III., Czar, Prince of Holstein, grandson of Peter I.'s 
daughter Anna, 102; at fourteen, in St. Petersburg, 128; 
married Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst (afterward Czar- 
ina Catherine II.), 129; appearance, 129; ascended throne, 
131, 134 and following; ukase freeing serfs, 131 ; his statue 
of gold proposed, 131 ; compared himself with Frederick the 
Great, 136; jest of uniting Biren and Munich, enemies, 132; 
plot against him, soldiers' butt, 159; conflict with murderers, 
160-161 ; death, 161 ; Catherine's account, 140 and^ following; 
the true account, 144-145; the mock (?) imperial funeral, 
145-146. 

318 



•ffnOex 

Peterhof, imperial summer-house, 137, 145. 

Peter's Black Boy, Pushkine, general of artillery, 242. 

Peter's (or Pieter's) burg. See St. Petersburg. 

Pojarski, patriotic nobleman, 67. 

Poland, annexed, 6; ceded to Saxony, 56; in despair, 75; 
Poland and Catherine IL, 164, 166, 167; Polanders invade 
Russia, 326, 43 and following, 81; war with Russia, 115. 

Poniatowski, 166-167. 

Potemkine (Kniass: Count), Premier, favourite of Catherine II., 
estimate of favours, 162; as the new Aladdin, 163; fought 
the Turks, 164; died on the Jassy road, 163. 

Preobrajenski Regiment, the first regular regiment in Russian 
army, raised, 73; revolts, 73-74; rewarded, 108, 110; revolts, 
203, 224, 226-227. 

Princess T , murderess, 272. 

Printing introduced, 8. 

Prisoner buried alive in freezing Neva, 176 and following; 
" Russian Prisoner of the Temple," 14. 

Pruth, battle on the, avoided, 94-96. 

Pskof or Pskov (see Ivan IV.), burial-place of poet Pushkine, 
256. 

Public officials cannot be prosecuted, 309. 

Pugetchef, Cossack rebel, 162; story of his revolt, by Pushkine, 
247. 

Pultawa, 54-55. 

Pushkine, family of African origin, 241 ; another claim, 242 ; 
the poet, 241 and following; " Ode to Freedom," 242 ; " Pris- 
oner of the Caucasus," 245 ; called " the Russian Byron," 
245; toast to Siberian captives, cheer to the same, 247; his 
"Two Ravens," 248-249; his "Pistol-shot," 250; his "Cap- 
tain's Daughter," 250; epigram on Pestel sentences, 246; 
intrigue to kill him, 251 and following; duel, same; death, 
256; honours paid, 257. 



Radziwill, Charles, Prince; ambitious views, 166; engaged to 

Empress Elizabeth's supposititious daughter Helena, 169. 
Razumowski, chapel-master, publicly weds Empress Elizabeth, 

no; denies it, as a lesson, in. 
Revel, 44, 56. 
Revolts, of Strelitz Militia, 68; another, yy, of the Preobrajenski 

Regiment, 73-74; of Moscow Regiment, 221; of naval forces, 

221. 
Riga, state prison, 109, 117. 
Romanoff, founder of imperial line, Michael and Alexis, Czars, 

68. See the names. 
Romanoff, the Metropolitan, 68. 
Ropcha, state prison, 160. 
Russia, dimensions, 1533-84, 2; aggrandizement, 60; state in 

eighteenth century, 75; navy, 106; nobles, 106; Russian 

obedience, 273; "Old Party," 105, no; press gagged, 309; 

319 



IFn^ex 

superstition, 209, 245; the Russian Via Dolorosa, 275; wri- 
ters, 241. 
Ryleief, Conrad, conspirator, 230; a poet-prophet, 231; and 
Czar Nicholas, 234; on scaffold, 239. 

Saardam, 38. 

St. George's Cross, 306. 

St. Petersburg, 31, Z7\ "Window on Europe," 37, 46; and Cath- 
erine II., 164; fatal in autumn, 64; oldest church, 31, 64; 
Peter's House, 31, 2>'2\ smoking forbidden, 126-127; the Cit- 
adel, 31 ; legend, 176 and following; another, 165 ; the spire, 
295 and following. 

Saratof Regiment, treasonable, 219. 

Schemeretef, the Voyvode, 11; family married into Romanoffs, 
67; General Schemeretef, 84 and following. 

Schlusselburg, 109; Czar's prison, 118, 119; hoax, 123 and fol- 
lowing, 145. 

Schtepine, Prince, revolutioaist, 223. 

Schuvalof, Minister, no; Count Alexander Schuvalof, 142. 

" Semiramis of the North," Voltaire to Catherine II., as husband- 
slayer, 162. 

Serfs, under Alexis, 35; under Peter I., 36; under Peter III., 
131 ; under Alexander, 131. 

Sergius, St., 2. 

Siberia, no return from, 298; life of the aristocratic exiles, 
272; a convict's story, 258-264; another (love and revenge), 
264-268; the incendiary's story, 269-271; author's reflection 
on the two classes of convicts, 271. 

Simianovski Regiment, 140, 209, 222. 

Smoking in public, 126-127. 

Societies, secret, revolutionary, Northern, Southern, 218; Sla- 
vonic, 229. 

Soldiers. Privates dare not complain, 303 ; " lucky soldiers ! " 
— "the Beef Fraud," 302. 

Sophia, Grand Duchess, Regent for Ivan and Peter, minor Czars, 
68, 71; pursues her rival, half-sister Nathalia, 71; her proj- 
ects, 73; declared usurper, 75; betrayed to Peter I., 94; 
immured, and dies as " Sister Marfa," 83. ^ ^ 

Speranski, reformer, 291-293; Governor of Siberia, 292; his 
secretary's fate, 293. 

Spoils, division between civic and military authorities, 303. 

State and Church, 50. 

Strelitz Militia, created, 5, 34; threaten Peter I., 80; massacred, 
80; sole survivor. See Orloff. 

Sukanine and Tsikler, military conspirators, 77 and following. 

Swedes and Russians, Battle of Tcherikof, 51-58. 

Talitzine, noble, admiral, 153. 

Talitzine, Count, 203; houses conspirators, 207, 209. 
Tarakanoff, Princess Helena, life and fate, 167 and following. 
Tattars/' invasion, 5. 

320 



Tateswill, Prince, major-general artillery, 209; vowed vengeance 
on Czar, 212; grapples Czar Paul to kill him, 212. 

Taurus (Taurides), Crimea, "New Russia," Palace, 162. 

"Tchin" (rank), 299. 

Teploff {see Bariatinski), 160. 

Tolstoi, Count, betrays Czarina Sophia to Czar Peter, 94. 

Tombstone decapitated, 35. 

Trinity Church, Moscow, 2. 

Trubetsky (Trubetskoi), Field-marshal, 143; Prince, leads rev- 
olution, 220, 221 ; Princess Trubetsky in Siberia, 274. 

Tsarsko-Celo, 239; Chinese Bridge, 228, 293; Lyceum, 242, 247. 

Tsikler and Sukanine, conspirators, yy, 86. 

Turks and Russians, 80, 93, 115. 

Turkish barber, Paul I.'s favourite, 182, 199. 

Uglitch, 15, 18, 19. 
Ukraine, 50. 

"Venice of the North" (St. Petersburg), 245. 

Verona, Congress of, 218. 

Villebois, Captain, French adventurer, his exploits, 38; drunken 

freak, 39-43. 
Violet, Captain, adventurer, 304 and following. 
Volga, 5. 

Water-mark Tree on Neva, 18. 
Wolkonski, 228; execution, 236. 

Woronzoff, Michael, conspirator, 108; Chancellor Woronzoff, 
150, 159. 

Zuboff, Prime Minister, 164; disgraced, 198; retired in Germany, 
198; Pahlen's hint, 198; returns to favour, 209. 



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